Switched
by XylophoneGirl
Summary: When one of Ino's jutsus goes drastically wrong, Naruto and Sasuke are forced to deal with the body swapping consequences, with Sasuke choosing to do so by dragging oblivious Hinata Hyuga into the mess. Training, awkward moments and scary new feelings ensue, but can Sasuke stop Hinata finding out the truth before they switch back? SasuHina. Chapter 9 has been uploaded!
1. Chapter 1

Author's note- I think I've managed to achieve the longest time between joining FF and posting a story XD Oh well. This is my first attempt at writing and I would really appreciate constructive criticism :) The story is based pre-timeskip and after the Search For Tsunade arc, although it is slightly AU in that Sasuke has not met with Itachi since the massacre and does not know the full story behind Kakashi's coma (which is just for convenience's sake :P). I know the first chapter doesn't include Hinata at all but I promise she'll appear very soon. The real action starts in the next chapter ;) Anyway, enjoy!

-Switched- Chapter 1

"Hmph."

Sasuke, the soon-to-be-avenger of the Uchiha clan, sighed as he rolled his eyes at the rest of the shinobi 'training' together at the 53rd training ground. As usual, he'd gone to Team Seven's meeting place only for the team to be informed by Kakashi that today they were taking part in a 'special' joint training session with Team Ten. That sudden announcement confused Sasuke; the majority of Team Seven's joint sessions were with either Team Eight or Team Guy and the glint in Kakashi's right eye was slightly... unnerving. Sakura beamed while Naruto immediately proclaimed that he was going to show Shikamaru and Choji "how a real ninja fights, believe it!"

'_Yeah, right,' _Sasuke thought sarcastically, rolling his eyes yet again. He was the only person who was currently up on their feet, neatly throwing shuriken at the worn target. Naruto was excitedly blabbering to Choji about some new ramen restaurant that had just opened while Shikamaru was basking lazily in the sunlight. The two senseis were in deep conversation, flashing glances at the students every so often and Sasuke briefly caught the words "risky" and "I'm sure they'll be up for it", sparking his interest momentarily. His restless eyes caught a glimpse of Sakura and Ino gossiping underneath the cherry blossom tree and Sasuke briefly felt a surge of relief; at least Sakura and Ino mending their friendship meant that their stupid, petty, _oh so annoying_ arguments were long gone.

However, Sasuke was losing patience fast and Kakashi looked up from his Icha Icha book to find a sullen thirteen year-old glaring up at him. "Kakashi, what's the point of this training session?" Sasuke asked, making no attempt to disguise the sheer boredom in his voice.

"Yeah, Kakashi-sensei, what's so 'special' about this training session anyway?" Naruto joined in. "I don't get it."

"You'll see soon," Kakashi smiled, closing his book as Asuma's voice boomed over the grounds, calling everyone over to the two senseis.

* * *

"So Ino, would you like to explain the purpose of today's session to Team Seven?" Asuma gestured to the blonde kunoichi who seemed eager but slightly nervous as she stepped into the middle of the group. Team Seven glanced at each other, each face reflecting their confusion but Kakashi merely continued grinning at them. Shikamaru and Choji just looked like they couldn't care less.

"Well," Ino began confidently, "recently I've been learning a new Yamanaka Clan ninjutsu. I've perfected the technique"-Shikamaru raised his left eyebrow-"in theory but in practice, I've been less successful. I tried it on Shikamaru and Choji but it failed"-_'Doesn't sound perfected to me,'_ Team Seven thought-"but I think it may have been due to how they've been friends for so long and their will may be strong enough to defeat it."

"So, you're planning to use us as guinea pigs instead?" Sakura's pleasant expression was swiftly replaced by a fierce scowl.

"No, just Naruto and Sasuke-kun because since they, you know, fight more which I think makes the jutsu more likely to work," replied Ino, her initially confident tone now more hesitant. "It'll be quick and there won't be any lasting damage to either of you," she reassured the two other boys who to Ino's relief looked more than a little more willing to co-operate than Sakura.

"Well, I'm ready for anything!" Naruto declared, flashing a sideways look at Sasuke who nodded his approval, interested in seeing the effects of the new technique. Sakura winced but relented, mumbling, "Those two...never think twice...own well-being..." Kakashi and Asuma exchanged brief looks of relief that so far, everything seemed to be going to plan.

"So, what's this new jutsu about anyway, huh?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"The name of the technique is the Mind Destruction Jutsu."

* * *

Sasuke's jaw dropped.

"MIND DESTRUCTION JUTSU?" Naruto roared as Sakura angrily shrieked "Ino-pig, are you crazy?"

"Let me finish explaining!" Ino yelled in exasperation. "It doesn't _destroy_ anything; it's just me sending my chakra into Sasuke-kun and Naruto's nervous systems in order to take control of their bodies so I can force them to attack each other-but of course," she quickly said, eyeing a seething Sakura, "I won't force them to do anything dangerous or harmful to each other."

"Doesn't sound too bad to me," Sasuke shrugged, secretly praising the heavens that the name of the jutsu did _not_ refer to its purpose. "Sure, if it means a chance to beat the jerk up, I'll do it!" Naruto agreed happily. Sakura looked at them desperately but sensing defeat, she shook her head and warned Ino, "You'd better not mess this up."

"I won't, I promise," smiled Ino and Sakura nodded, although the concern did not leave her face. With a quick look at Asuma and Kakashi for approval, she made a unique hand seal as she focused her chakra. The group watched, spellbound as Ino cried "Mind Destruction Jutsu" and Naruto and Sasuke were hit by a clear blue burst of chakra.

Sasuke had tried to prepare himself for the attack but as Ino's chakra seized him, his vision blurred and he was overcome by dizziness. He tried to look at Naruto but he couldn't see anything- his body was numb, as if he'd been unattached from it altogether...

* * *

The name of the jutsu comes from the English version of the anime. Reviews are very much appreciated :)


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note- Thanks to everyone who read the first chapter and to those who reviewed, put it on alert etc :D This chapter took me ages to do since I found certain parts to be really difficult to write but it's finally up! Hinata appears as well for the first time. Hope you enjoy the chapter :)

Switched- Chapter 2

'_...What happened...that jutsu...why do I feel like...?'_

His awareness drifting back to him, Sasuke slowly began to recognise the distressed voices around him as he awoke from his involuntary slumber. From what he could hear, everyone seemed to be in turmoil and Sasuke winced as he heard Sakura's angry outburst at Ino: "You said nothing would go wrong! You _promised _me nothing would go wrong!"

"Sakura, I-I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do anything like this- it was an accident!" Ino wailed, traumatised at how badly her jutsu had performed. "I can't- I don't even know what went wrong," she continued desperately and Sasuke could imagine the look of fury that must have been painted on Sakura's face. _'I don't think they're going to be friends after this.'_

Sasuke began to sluggishly open his aching eyes. He didn't know why (maybe it was the effects of the failed technique) but he just _didn't_ feel right. Something had changed; something was different about him and Sasuke absent-mindedly noted that his long hair wasn't tickling his cheeks as usual. As his eyes finally burst open, Shikamaru called out, "Hey, Naruto's awake." Sasuke's initial confusion at this statement vanished as a blonde, teary-eyed kunoichi came into view.

"I'm so, so sorry about this," Ino apologised hastily, trying to wipe her tears away. "I just don't know what happened- are you feeling alright?"

"I'm-" Sasuke began to respond but the sound of his voice shocked him into silence. Trying to move his weary body, Sakura suddenly cried out "Sasuke-kun, you're awake!" as Sasuke rolled over to see his horrified face staring back at him mutely.

* * *

After a few minutes of absolute chaos, Team Seven and Team Ten soon realised what Ino's jutsu had done. "B-but how in the world can such a technique lead to something like this?" Sakura hysterically questioned her, shakily pointing towards her two teammates.

"Yeah, how?" Naruto choked out, his voice slightly hoarse from his reaction to being in Sasuke's body earlier. Sasuke just stared hopelessly at Ino, unable to speak since he had first tried to console her.

"I don't know," Ino replied shakily, her entire figure trembling. "I have no idea whatsoever. I just can't believe"-her wet eyes darted over to Naruto and Sasuke-"what's happened to you two."

"I've been thinking about it and I've managed to find a possible explanation," Kakashi spoke up finally, having been submerged in deep thought for a minute. "Ino, it could be possible that you focused your chakra too much and when you sent it into Naruto and Sasuke, instead of just taking over their bodies, your chakra somehow pushed them into each other's bodies instead."

"That does seem to be the best explanation any of us can come up with, Kakashi," Asuma agreed before turning to his distraught student. "Ino, we understand this was an accident so please stop crying," he said softly, trying to reassure her. "And I know you three are angry at what happened," Asuma continued with a fiercer tone, directing a stern glare at Team Seven, "but you must understand this was not intentional and there is no reason to vent your frustration at Ino. She is upset at what she has done and she has apologised to you three; there's nothing more she can do."

Team Seven nodded quietly in agreement, Sakura's guilt leading her to softly murmuring, "Sorry." Ino looked up and the two briefly exchanged a small smile.

"But if Ino can't do anything about it, what on earth are me and Sasuke gonna do?" Naruto asked in despair. "We're...we're not going to be stuck like this, are we?"

"I may not be able to do anything but I'm sure my dad has a solution," Ino suggested, her face beginning to lighten up.

* * *

"I've heard of this happening before as a side effect of Yamanaka Clan ninjutsu but I've never actually seen it occur," Inoichi explained, having calmly listened to what had happened from Ino and asking the boys a few questions. "However, I'm certain that we have information on how to deal with the situation and I'll be able to reverse the jutsu soon."

Sakura breathed a sigh of relief as Naruto grinned at Sasuke who smirked back, amused yet slightly disturbed at the strange expression on his normally emotionless face. Only Kakashi remained serious as he asked Inoichi "When will 'soon' be exactly?"

"Hopefully no more than a week or two, depending how quickly I can find the counter-jutsu," Inoichi responded as Naruto's eyes began to bulge in horror.

"There's no way I'm spending the next fortnight like this," hissed Sasuke, the venom poisoning Naruto's usually upbeat voice. _'I am NOT going to be stuck in the dobe's body for THAT long.'_

"TWO ENTIRE WEEKS? Inoichi-san, you've got to be kidding me!" Naruto shrieked, completely exasperated. "I can't believe I'm going to have to stay in Sasuke's ugly body for so long," he continued to whine, conveniently ignoring Sakura, Ino and Sasuke's reactions of "Naruto, you idiot!", "Hey, Sasuke-kun is NOT ugly" and "Whatever".

"Well, I'm afraid you're going to have to deal with the situation as well as you can until I can sort it out," Inoichi said bluntly. "It could be a lot worse, you know," he continued as the icy tone of his voice made everyone shiver.

"Why don't you two try to make the most of it?" Kakashi suggested cheerily, making a futile attempt at lightening the situation. "It's a new challenge for both of you and surely it will...strengthen you."

"Yeah right," muttered Naruto under his breath as Sasuke rolled his eyes. Kakashi sighed, deciding to retreat on the issue and picked up his book. "Well, I think everyone needs to go home and have a good rest after everything that's happened today." _'For the love of Icha Icha, I certainly do.' _Thankful for the signal, the shinobi began to quickly hurry home.

"Oh and Naruto, Sasuke," Kakashi called suddenly. "I guess you'd better return to each other's houses so no one suspects anything."

"WHAT?"

* * *

'_Stupid Kakashi. Stupid jutsu. Stupid dobe,' _Sasuke thought angrily as he dragged his feet noisily. The sun was setting in the overcast sky, the buildings casting shadows everywhere so the gloomy streets matched the unusually glum 'Naruto' as he made his way 'home'.

"N-Naruto-kun?"

"Huh?" Sasuke spun round quickly to find the meek Hyūga heiress blushing as she tried to greet him. "G-good evening, N-Naruto-kun," Hinata quietly murmured, too shy to meet Sasuke's eyes with her own. Sasuke stared at her for a moment before attempting a Naruto-esque greeting of his own. "Oh, hey Hinata!"

Thankfully, Hinata seemed satisfied by it. "H-have you been doing w-well since you came back?" she smiled, beginning to twiddle her fingers nervously as Sasuke became irritated at her apparent inability to look at him properly.

'_Hang on a minute, she's the girl with that strange crush on Naruto,'_ Sasuke realised suddenly as he gave a brief reply to Hinata's kind query. Slowly, memories of the small, timid girl from Team Eight who only ever spoke to him if necessary began to surface and he remembered how she was the only female who never obsessed over him in the academy, instead choosing to dedicate her affections to the most unlikely of suitors. Although before he graduated, Sasuke was just relieved she wasn't another annoying girl with an annoying crush on him, he was now much more intrigued by her and her attraction to his teammate- whose body he just so happened to be in. Great.

'_I don't understand it though. She's the heir of one of Konoha's most noble (and stuck-up) clans so what on earth does she see in a guy like Naruto?' _Sasuke wondered, completely confused now he bothered to think about it. _'He's not good-looking, he doesn't have any special talents or gifts and he's not particularly smart or strong.' _The last word of Sasuke's internal musings sparked off the usually dormant green-eyed monster inside him, having suddenly become much more prevalent than usual since the Chūnin Exams. _'Why him, out of all people?" _

"Na-Naruto-kun," Hinata quietly spoke, snapping Sasuke out of his thoughts. "Yeah, Hinata?"

"Uh-um, well I heard you defeated N-Neji-niisan in the finals of the Chūnin Exams; I m-missed the last p-part," Hinata continued with a sheepish blush spreading over her cheeks. Sasuke gritted his teeth together; he disliked being reminded of how Naruto had beaten Neji while he had been unable to defeat Gaara in their battle. "And?" he snapped back, forgetting his situation momentarily.

"Um, well," Hinata mumbled, appearing upset at the sudden outburst but quickly gathering herself. "It's j-just that since your fight, N-Neji-niisan has started being nicer to me and showing me more re-respect and he even apologised for injuring m-me at the preliminaries. He also seems t-to have stopped believing in f-fate and destiny so strongly. Y-You helped me so much, Naruto-kun, to get stronger as a person by cheering me during my match so I know you must have h-helped Neji-niisan in the same way. I'd like to th-thank you for this, on behalf of Neji-niisan and me as well," Hinata concluded confidently with a small smile of gratitude.

'_If Naruto helped Hinata that much just by cheering her on, she must have very deep feelings for him,' _Sasuke silently realised as he considered her confession and Hinata began to blabber on about something else. _'It can't be just some shallow crush for his looks or abilities like those other girls who think they're in 'love'; she genuinely likes him.'_

Sasuke looked at the embarrassed, stammering girl playing with her thumbs anxiously in front of him with new eyes, eyes which admired her ever so slightly. _'No girl likes me in this way and yet... Naruto keeps outdoing me all the time, damn it!'_

"Um, Naruto-kun?"

Sasuke was suddenly broken free of the trance he was in to be faced with a bewildered heiress staring at him. He'd completely missed the rest of the conversation.

"Uh, thanks Hinata- I'm glad I, um, helped you so much," Sasuke said awkwardly, finding it difficult to mimic Naruto's energetic manner of speech and outgoing nature when he was almost the complete opposite. He hoped that the Hyūga was just as oblivious as the dobe, or would at least put his unusual behaviour down to tiredness.

"W-Well I need to g-get going now," Hinata replied, beaming at Sasuke's reply and thankful that her little speech had been seemingly successful. "I g-guess I'll see you tomorrow at t-training then," she carried on, trying to hide how obviously eager she was at the prospect of it.

Sasuke's mind suddenly went blank. "What are you talking about?" he questioned, a little stunned.

"Huh? Team Eight a-and Team Seven have a joint training session tomorrow so w-we'll be training together," Hinata informed him, flushing crimson as she spoke the last words of her sentence. She began to walk on quickly but not before shyly waving. "G-goodbye, Naruto-kun!"

"See you later, Hinata!" Sasuke choked out quickly, before he raced off as fast as he could to Naruto's house, the ominous feeling that he and Naruto were incredibly screwed growing all the time.

* * *

Sasuke hastily punched his phone number out on the keys of Naruto's orange(how on earth had he managed to buy an _orange_ telephone, out of all things?) handset. He couldn't believe how much time he'd wasted just looking for the cursed thing in the mess Naruto was miraculously able to live in. Just by attempting to find a phone, Sasuke had come across multiple cups of half-eaten ramen (which he had immediately chucked in the bin), a few shuriken left lying about (which he had also moved to prevent what could have potentially been a nasty accident) and a very strange calendar (_'That old guy has __not__ been a good influence on Naruto,'_ Sasuke noted, his left eyebrow twitching as he regarded the image of a scantily clad woman advertising September).

"Come on," growled Sasuke as the telephone continued to beep on and off. Finally, he heard the sound of someone picking up the phone. "Che?"

The chronic twitch of Sasuke's left eyebrow returned. "Naruto, that is _not _how I answer the phone."

"Wow, it's really weird listening to myself speak," Naruto thoughtfully said, ignoring Sasuke's advice. "That's you, Sasuke right? Man, your house is huge! It's pretty clean though, much better than mine, hehe..."

"I realised," replied Sasuke dryly, kicking an empty carton of milk across the floor.

"Yeah, well I can't believe you even organise every one of your kunai and shuriken in size order. Do you have obsessive compulsive disorder or something? And the food in your fridge, it's all so healthy and blech. How can you live with no ramen?"

"Quite easily."

"Geez Sasuke, you're so weird. I'm going to have buy some I guess 'cause I'm not living on six boxes of tomatoes. Why do you have six boxes of tomatoes anyway?"

"Naruto-"

"Well, I guess it doesn't matter that much. Oh, by the way how do you turn your TV on because I can't miss Drag-"

"Naruto," Sasuke answered, the hint of desperation and urgency becoming rapidly stronger in his voice, "trust me, we have bigger problems than the location of my remote control right now."

* * *

I found Hinata's 'mini-speech' and Sasuke's reaction difficult to characterise so I don't know how well that section went :( Again, feedback is always appreciated as usual, no matter how much :)

Oh, and here's a part I ended up cutting out since I felt it was a bit OOC. But I just had to mention that absolutely _adorable _dinosaur plushie Sasuke had as a kid ^^

"Oh, and Sasuke." Naruto began to snicker a little. "I never realised you liked dinosaurs so much. That's a _really _cool cuddly-"

"SHUT UP NARUTO!"


	3. Chapter 3

Author's note- Again, thanks for all the reviews :) I'd like to give a special thanks as well to the reviewers who also gave me advice on how to write- that helped a lot :) This is the longest chapter I've written so far so it took a long time but I hope you enjoy it.

Switched- Chapter 3

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" roared Naruto, as he blew... a tiny sphere of flames, a complete mockery of the Uchiha Clan's prized technique.

Not for the first time that morning, Sasuke groaned. In his head, the idea of an emergency meeting where he and Naruto would be able to learn each other's jutsu so they could successfully pose as each other during Team Seven's joint training session had sounded like a brilliant solution to the problem. However, the harsh reality was that it was much more difficult to replicate their teammate's techniques in practice as both had found out to their dismay.

Naruto had been struggling all the time, but he had at least managed to learn the taijutsu Sasuke had copied from Rock Lee, even he hadn't been able to completely perfect his incredible speed. Most importantly, he'd been able to activate the Sharingan fairly quickly, and with a little help had figured out how to use it effectively.

"Do you think I'll be alright with just taijutsu and the Sharingan?" asked Naruto anxiously, as if he was reading Sasuke's mind. Sasuke bit his lip, not knowing how to answer as he tried to avoid meeting Naruto's worried eyes. Although he had not been expecting Naruto to have mastered Chidori in the few hours they had trained, Naruto had not been able to perform any of Sasuke's ninjutsu whatsoever. "Well, it'll have to be alright," he replied with a small sigh as Naruto looked down at his feet dejectedly.

On the other hand, Sasuke had initially managed to learn the Shadow Clone Jutsu very quickly but had soon realised that his lack of experience with the technique would soon render it useless in battle. Following that, Sasuke had been practising with the clones, marvelling at how no matter how many he created, he always seemed to still have a fair supply of chakra. However, when he had questioned Naruto about this, Naruto had reacted by joking about it to avoid answering directly, which had frustrated Sasuke. _'Where on earth does Naruto get all his energy from?'_

Taking a quick glance at his watch, Sasuke called over to Naruto, "We need to get going; training starts in fifteen minutes."

"Wait, let me try one more-" Naruto began, beginning to form a hand seal but Sasuke interrupted him. "Naruto, we haven't got time and you're going to deplete a lot of chakra if you keep attempting the jutsu. You know," he continued bitterly, "my chakra supply is finite, unlike _yours_."

"Fine, if you say so," shrugged Naruto, throwing his hands behind his head and casually walking away towards the field. Sasuke followed him, silently staring at his neck, at the cursed seal Naruto was completely unaware of as he scratched it carelessly. _'Naruto hasn't got a clue and I still don't want him to know but... if he wastes chakra carelessly like he was doing just now, the seal will activate and then... how on earth will Naruto react to that?' _

* * *

"The only other person who has been informed of what's happened is Hokage-sama out of necessity so no one on Team Eight is aware of what has happened. So, please act as normally as you can; we don't want to create any suspicion," concluded Kakashi, finishing his brief pep talk which he had astoundingly managed to arrive _on time_ to give, serving not only to aid the team but also to scare them silly. Although his original intention of coming on time had just been to make them appreciate the situation was serious, Sakura and Naruto both almost fainted with shock while Sasuke had performed a remarkably accurate impression of a human goldfish when he turned up. As a result, Kakashi had solemnly sworn never to arrive on time again.

"Ah, here they are," Kakashi nodded in the direction of the approaching team. "Good morning you four-yes Kurenai, I am on time," he chuckled as he noticed her slack jaw.

Sasuke's eyes darted swiftly over to Team Eight as they made their way over, momentarily making contact with Hinata's pale orbs before she hastily broke away, flushing luminescent pink. His thoughts turned to the words she had shyly spoken to him the evening before: _"Y-You helped me so much, Naruto-kun, to get stronger as a person."_ Sasuke had only ever known Hinata as a weak girl lacking in confidence from his brief encounters with Team Eight in the past; how much had she changed since then, how much stronger she become?

"Greetings, Kakashi, Team Seven," Kurenai politely replied, having managed to quickly collect herself. Akamaru barked happily as Kiba smirked confidently round at Team Seven, while Shino remained silent and Hinata shifted awkwardly, casting fleeting glances at Sasuke. "So, we were planning on holding a few practice spars today, weren't we?"

"Yes, I believe that was the plan," Kakashi confirmed with a quick nod. "So, how do we want to organise this?" he asked, motioning towards both teams.

Kiba interjected almost immediately, his eyes gleaming with unrestrained enthusiasm: "Naruto, what about a rematch between me and you, huh? I'm definitely gonna beat you this time for sure!"

Despite knowing he was at a disadvantage, Sasuke couldn't help but snicker at the dog lover's overconfident boast. "I wouldn't be so sure if I were you," he retaliated with a smirk as Akamaru began to growl fiercely, trying his best to stand up for his master. Kiba's cocky grin vanished at this and he began to snarl at Sasuke, twisting into a fighting stance.

"Uchiha Sasuke?" Shino suddenly spoke up, looking over directly at a nervous Naruto who was staring determinedly at the ground, hands firmly shoved into his pockets. "What? Oh, yeah I'll spar with you," he replied, jerking his head up with a false imitation of Sasuke's trademark smirk plastered on his face.

"Well, I guess that means me and Hinata will be sparring today," finished Sakura, smiling at the bashful Hyūga heiress who gave a slight bow in agreement.

"Okay, so we're all sorted then," Kurenai said, pleased at how quickly everything had been arranged. "Which pair would like to begin?"

* * *

Naruto grunted in frustration as Shino used his insect shields to block yet another of his well-aimed kicks. Seriously, how could a few bugs stop taijutsu just like _that_? His hands began to form the seals for the Shadow Clone Jutsu but Naruto hurriedly snapped himself out of it- his usual techniques wouldn't work in Sasuke's body and Sasuke had already warned him about using up too much chakra earlier.

Shino sent another huge swarm of insects directly at Naruto; his attacks had become much more vicious since Naruto, in desperation due to the thousands of creepy crawlies surrounding his right foot, had decided to use the childish technique of stomping on the bugs, horrifying the poor insect lover. Naruto only barely dodged out of the way in time, the kikaichū scratching his leg as he flipped over to the opposite side of his opponent. _'There must be a way,' _he thought anxiously, hastily avoiding another stream of bugs. Suddenly, inspiration came to him: _'That's IT! It may not work but it's worth a try...'_

Activating the Sharingan and focusing as hard as he could on his memories of Rock Lee during his fight with Gaara as Sasuke had instructed him to hours earlier, Naruto closed his eyes and... vanished.

'_Huh?'_ Shino paused in mid-punch, turning his head in all directions frantically. The rest of the shinobi looked around, exchanging puzzled looks.

Moving so fast he was barely visible, Naruto raced up a tree and launched himself off, a blur flying through the air. Shino, suddenly realising what had happened, spun round but it was too late for his bugs to reach him time. "INCOMING!" screamed Naruto, a wide grin on his face as he soared down towards the helpless Aburame.

Coincidentally, Naruto's foot collided into Shino's head at exactly the same time Sasuke's palm crashed into his face.

* * *

'_It's over,' _thought Sasuke with mean-spirited glee as the shadow clones that Kiba and Akamaru had both been aiming at dispersed. Although Kiba had had the upper hand at the beginning of the fight as Sasuke had never witnessed the unique fighting style of the Inuzuka clan and was still uneasy with using a multitude of clones, Sasuke had soon realised that using the clones as distractions was a good strategy and hadn't looked back.

Making a quick hand sign, the exploding tag that one of his clones had planted earlier detonated with a loud bang, the outburst of flames engulfing both Kiba and Akamaru. As Kakashi announced, "Winner, Naruto Uzumaki", Sasuke gave Naruto and Sakura a thumbs up before taking a quick glimpse at Hinata who had rushed immediately to Kiba's side, not paying any attention to Sasuke at all . Trying to ignore a strange pang in his chest, Sasuke returned to his teammates to be welcomed by Sakura whispering, "Good job, Sasuke-kun!"

"Heh, that was a smart move there _Naruto_," Naruto grinned, giving his friend a small punch on the arm jokingly. "So... are you still mad about what I did earlier? Come on, you've got to admit that was a _great_ kick..."

"...You made _me_ look like an idiot."

"No I didn't! Come on Sasuke, I finally got the speed right and you were nagging at me all morning about that-"

"Hinata and Sakura, are you ready to begin?" Kurenai's clear voice echoed over to Team Seven. Hinata had finished tending to Kiba with her special ointment and was now moving into her natural fighting stance while Sakura begun to prepare herself as well. Naruto and Sasuke stopped bickering, both of them eager to see the match. Sasuke's eyes glittered with anticipation; he was thoroughly intrigued by the idea of a stronger, more competent Hinata, as much as he tried to dismiss it and he was interested in seeing how her fight with Sakura would turn out.

"Okay, are you ready? Begin!" called Kurenai.

Hinata immediately activated her Byakugan as Sakura created a few clones of herself and charged straight at Hinata. As all five Sakuras began to throw a punch at her, she deftly jabbed the four copies, dispelling them before attempting to hit the real one. Realising the illusions were useless, Sakura speedily formed a hand seal and smoke erupted from her, leaving behind a small log. Using her exceptional chakra control, she used a quick burst of speed to get behind Hinata but as Sakura attempted to land a hit, Hinata instantly spun round and deflected her fist, landing a heavy blow on Sakura's arm as she did so. Sakura leapt back instinctively, wincing as she clutched her injured arm.

"She's faster," Sasuke noted out loud, as he watched Hinata swiftly dodge another strike from Sakura. He also recognised silently that her aim was much more precise than when he had last seen her try to land a hit, that her arms moved with more power-_no_, just much more confidence, as if she truly believed she could fight and win.

"Yeah, Hinata-chan's been training loads since the exams," Kiba replied, laughing as Sasuke jumped in surprise- since when was Inuzuka right next to him? "She's really been focusing on her speed like you mentioned and she's been practising her technique as well."

"I noticed that," commented Sasuke as he watched Sakura launch a particularly strong kick at Hinata's feet, sending the Hyūga flying to the ground. Despite the heavy hit, Hinata was able to quickly get back to her feet and start trading blows with Sakura again, which impressed him.

"She'll be glad to hear that, you know," Kiba said with a rough voice but a kind smile on his face. "Out of everyone on our team, Hinata's always been the one who trains the longest and hardest but her confidence always used to let her down. She's become more confident recently after taking part in the Chūnin Exams"-_'So Naruto really did help her get stronger,' _Sasuke realised-"and she's improving a lot because of that."

'_I didn't know she worked that hard,' _Sasuke thought, observing one of Hinata's jabs that seemed particularly effective. _'She's weak, no denying that but... she's trying so hard to improve herself that maybe... maybe that weakness doesn't matter so much.'_

As Hinata faced Sasuke again, defending herself from an onslaught of shuriken, he caught a brief glimpse of her eyes, fixed firmly on her opponent. The confidence in them did waver in the few seconds he saw them but they were full of steadfast determination, not unlike, Sasuke realised all of a sudden, Naruto. _'That's interesting...'_

"I can't continue," Sakura cried out after Hinata landed a final decisive hit on her shoulder. "My arms- they're completely numb. They're useless."

"Winner, Hinata Hyūga," Kakashi confirmed as Hinata, to Sasuke's astonishment, rushed over to Sakura's side and began trying to comfort her that her chakra coils were not badly damaged and that they would be completely back to normal in a few hours, which lead to a sigh of relief from the pink-haired kunoichi. _'She's just beaten her in battle and then immediately goes and tries to reassure her? What a strange kunoichi you are, Hinata Hyūga.' _

"Now the spars are over, let's move onto some individual training," suggested Kurenai, unable to hold back a small smile as Kiba cheered.

* * *

As the rest of the genin continued to throw kunai at rotting targets or practise their own unique jutsus, Sasuke strolled through the grounds as he searched for Hinata. For reasons he couldn't comprehend, he felt a strong urge to go out of his way and make an effort to communicate with her, although he wasn't entirely sure what he should say. Sasuke attributed it to wanting to completely make sure his observations that she had become stronger, just to ensure her crush on Naruto was definitely for (in his opinion) proper reasons. Again, his chest suddenly suffered another odd jolt and Sasuke resolved to ask Naruto if he had sustained any injuries recently.

Sasuke soon found the heiress who was pummelling a well worn wooden post, her breathing becoming heavier by the second. "Hey, Hinata!" he called over to her, mimicking the dobe's boisterous way of greeting people.

Hinata gave a loud, startled squeak as she stumbled away from the post in surprise, with a wide-eyed expression and a gaping mouth. It took all of Sasuke's self-discipline for him to suppress his desire to laugh. "S-Sorry N-Naruto-kun, you st-startled me," she stammered out in embarrassment, bowing in apology as her cheeks rapidly became redder.

As he began to take a breath and open his lips, it suddenly hit Sasuke like a tonne of bricks that: one, he was trying to start a conversation with a girl he barely knew; two, despite being a genius in most other fields, he had very little skill or experience in starting conversations with _anyone_ or continuing them for that matter and three, he still had absolutely no idea what to say. Feeling considerably out of his depth, Sasuke bravely decided to try anyway.

"So, um, how did you learn to control your chakra like that?" he asked, saying the first thing that came to mind. Hinata had shown remarkable chakra control during the spar with Sakura, although Sasuke knew he should have expected it, considering her background.

"W-Well," began Hinata, blushing slightly. "Th-There are many different ways to learn and r-refine chakra control I guess, but in our clan, meditation is taught as a very effective w-way to focus chakra."

'_Yeah, thinking about it I have seen Neji Hyūga meditating near one of the shuriken ranges before,' _Sasuke remembered, as Hinata continued. "N-Naruto-kun, maybe you c-could use meditation to improve your c-chakra control as well," she shyly suggested.

"What do I need to improve about my chakra control?" Sasuke questioned her, a little taken aback at her subtle criticism. Although he was well aware of the fact that Sakura undoubtedly had the best chakra control of Team Seven, Sasuke was completely assured of his own and Kakashi had even bothered to pay him a few compliments on how well developed his was for a genin. Hinata's unexpected comment had stung him a little.

"Y-Your chakra control is overall v-very good, but you're not very efficient w-when you're moulding your chakra. T-This means you waste a small portion of y-your chakra every time you use a jutsu which leads to you l-losing chakra faster," Hinata explained patiently. Sasuke's eyes widened in understanding; so this was the reason he always seemed to use up so much chakra so quickly compared to Naruto (though he knew Naruto had an unusually high amount of stamina anyway). Who knew that the Hyūga heiress was that intelligent?

"Do you know how I could become more efficient?" he asked a little impatiently, interested in the advice Hinata possibly had for him.

"Um, l-lots of practice of jutsus is what most people do to g-get better. And I know some other w-ways to improve chakra control, if y-you want to- oh, hello Sasuke-san," Hinata suddenly paused as she and Sasuke saw Naruto make his way over to them. Naruto looked completely baffled, his eyes darting between the two as if he was desperately trying to understand what was going on between them. _'Eh, I never realised Sasuke and Hinata got on well. Man, he's not being saying anything funny to her or anything has he? Nah, I don't think he'd do anything like that...'_

"Hi Hinata, hey Naruto," Naruto greeted in return, directing a quick look at Sasuke which said "Hey you jerk, what on earth are you doing?" Sasuke scowled back, displeased that the dobe had gone and interrupted Hinata just as she was about to give him some advice. "So, what are you two talking about anyway?"

Hinata started playing with her fingers nervously, and Sasuke's scowl deepened when he saw that she seemed to be slightly afraid of him compared to how much she liked Naruto. "I was talking to Hinata about chakra control, if you're _so _interested," he snapped.

'_Geez, what's up with him?' _Naruto thought, puzzled by Sasuke's behaviour. "Chakra control, huh? Oh, are you talking about the gentle fist stuff, Hinata?" he asked, deciding to focus on the girl who seemed to be in a better mood than his teammate.

"N-No, Naruto-kun was interested about using c-chakra efficiently," Hinata replied, trying to avoid making contact with Naruto's eyes which were now filled with confusion. _'Wha? I thought Sasuke could use chakra efficiently and Kakashi-sensei's always telling me I need to use chakra more efficiently like him and Sakura so why is he asking Hinata about that?' _Naruto shrugged; he'd just have to ask Sasuke later. "Anyway, Kurenai-sensei's finishing the session now and Kakashi-sensei's making our team's head back," he told Sasuke, who felt disgruntled that his conversation with Hinata had been cut short, especially as she was going to give him some tips. Damn, if only he knew what she was going to say...

"I-I'd better go back to Kiba and Shino a-as well then," Hinata softly said, looking rather disappointed as she began to head over to the rest of her team. "Goodbye N-Naruto-kun, Sasuke-san!"

"See ya later, Hinata!" both boys called in unison, Sasuke hissing in Naruto's ear shortly afterwards "If you shout like that again, she'll start suspecting something, idiot!"

"Sorry, forgot about that," Naruto grinned apologetically, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. _'Wow, I hope he's going to be in a better mood tomorrow at this rate.' _"Come on, we need to get going or we're gonna get a lecture from Sakura," he said hastily as he began to race back over to the kunoichi waving vigorously at them. "Yeah," agreed Sasuke, running with Naruto and the rest of Team Eight who were leaving as well.

Out of the blue, a light bulb went off in Sasuke's head. "Sasuke," he called, getting out a piece of scrap paper and a pen from his pocket, "you go on ahead and I'll catch you up in a sec."

Naruto stopped to turn round and look at his teammate quickly scrawling down something down on a piece of paper. "Sure," he answered back, continuing on his way wondering why Sasuke seemed to be acting so strangely today. _'Meh, it's probably just a side effect of Ino's crazy jutsu or something like that.'_

* * *

"Hey, why does Hinata call me Naruto-_kun _but she calls the jerk Sasuke-_san_?" Naruto suddenly asked as Team Seven made their way back home. Sasuke grimaced, disliking how Naruto was forcing him to see that Hinata, who seemed to be one of the most capable kunoichis of his age, liked Naruto so much more than him. Not that he cared that much anyway. Actually, the girls that called him 'Sasuke-kun' tended to be the clingy, annoying ones anyway.

"Oh, that's just because you speak a lot more to her than Sasuke-kun does, right Sasuke-kun?" Sakura instantly replied, her voice slightly more high-pitched than normal as she looked for approval from Sasuke. It then struck Sasuke that Sakura was trying to keep Naruto in the dark about Hinata's feelings for him and he quickly backed up her answer: "Yeah, I barely talk to Hinata."

Naruto looked satisfied for a brief second, but before Sakura could breathe a sigh of relief, he asked an even more awkward question. "Hinata was acting kinda weird too- I mean she's always blushing when I see her but she wasn't today."

"Ah, well I was talking to, um, Kiba earlier and he said Hinata's not been well lately," Sakura lied blatantly as she begun nervously fiddling with her forehead protector. Sasuke choked- was that the best excuse she could come up with?

Fortunately, Naruto completely swallowed it and exclaimed, "Oh right, that explains it. Thanks Sakura-chan!" Sakura exhaled deeply at that, relieved that somehow her idea had worked, and thanked the heavens that Naruto was so naïve.

* * *

For some reason, Naruto and Sakura's chat had irritated Sasuke. He'd realised, among other things that probably the only reason Hinata had offered to give him advice was because he was in her crush's body. Then again, Sakura often described Hinata as a 'kind girl' so maybe she would have said that to everyone. This only served to worsen Sasuke's mood.

However, Sasuke began to lighten up as he recalled the note he'd slipped into Hinata's pocket as he had left the grounds that day: _'Hi Hinata, you told me you knew some ways of improving chakra control, right? Can you show me some of them? Meet me at 9.00 at the 53__rd__ training ground on Thursday. See ya, Naruto Uzumaki.'_

"_Yep," _thought Sasuke, smirking a little. _'Naruto, you may be ahead now, but not for long.'_

* * *

If you don't understand the 'kun' and 'san' part, 'San' is a formal Japanese honorific which is a title similar to 'Mr' or 'Miss' and 'Kun' can be used by a girl on a guy they have known for a long time or are emotionally attached to. As always, any kind of feedback is welcome :) Sorry, no extra cut outs this time.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's note- Thanks again to everyone who reviewed and gave feedback :) This chapter's much shorter than the previous one (I'm still not entirely sure how I managed to write over 4000 words for one chapter :S) and personally I don't think it's as good but I hope you enjoy it all the same :D

Switched- Chapter 4

The cool autumn breeze was blowing through the trees, sending crimson and gold leaves flying everywhere as Sasuke Uchiha made his way quickly down the path that led to the training grounds. Although he had tried to pretend that he wasn't that bothered about training with Hinata earlier, now he just couldn't get to her fast enough. There were few things that ever managed to make Sasuke excited, but training had never failed yet. And as it seemed, especially training with Hinata Hyūga, despite how desperately he was trying to deny it.

Soon enough, Sasuke caught sight of a petite girl staring intently at the cherry blossom tree in the middle of the field and called to her. "Hinata!"

Hinata jumped in surprise, leaping back from the tree, and turned to face Sasuke looking visibly flustered. "H-hello Naruto-kun," she politely smiled, her face lightening up as she saw the boy race towards her.

As Sasuke slowed down, he suddenly noticed that the Hyūga heiress' appearance had undergone a subtle change since he had last seen her. Her indigo hair was more neatly styled than usual and had a glossier sheen to it, which emphasised its unusual colour. Also, Sasuke was sure his eyes weren't deceiving him but he could have sworn that her _eyelashes _were longer. Weird. _'What kind of jutsu is that?'_

"Um, I-I'm going to teach you a b-basic chakra control technique today," Hinata shyly continued, as Sasuke broke out of his confusion. "I-I thought that you needed to start at low-level techniques b-before we moved onto higher ones."

"Yeah, that's understandable," Sasuke agreed as Hinata blushed and nodded, pleased that 'Naruto' liked her idea. "The t-technique is one of meditation and h-has been passed down from the elders in our c-clan. You m-meditate and focus on your two separate energies, y-your physical energy and your spiritual energy. B-By doing this you learn how to c-completely control each energy separately which in t-turn makes it easier to mix the t-two in the correct ratios for j-jutsu," she patiently explained.

"Right," replied Sasuke, listening intently and carefully absorbing all the information. "So, how do you perform it?"

"W-Well, first you get into a suitable p-posture and make the dragon hand s-seal..."

* * *

'_Focus...concentrate on your physical energy and spiritual energy...take hold of these energies separately and control them..." _Sasuke repeated Hinata's instructions again and again to himself as he tried to perfect the technique, occasionally shifting a leg or taking a deep breath. Curious to how his partner was doing, he allowed his eyelids to briefly flutter open, catching a glimpse of the heiress, poised elegantly and looking the epitome of serenity and calm. _'She makes it look so simple...then again, she's probably been practising this for years,' _Sasuke mused as he closed his eyes, returning to the darkness. As his mind drifted, he contemplated that as Hinata tended to be such a quiet and calm person, she would probably be more suited to meditation while he preferred much more active training methods instead. However, he could feel the technique helping him to control his energies more precisely and he was slowly beginning to improve his combination of the two to form chakra. _'Hn, this actually works. Your technique isn't half bad, Hinata Hyūga.'_

Taking another glance at Hinata, Sasuke couldn't help but admire the aura of peace and tranquillity she was shrouded in as she silently composed herself and her chakra. _'It's nice of her to bother teaching me a technique she's already mastered and take so much time over it...though it could just be because she thinks I'm Naruto instead.'_

Immediately, Sasuke's calm mood darkened; his whole body tensed with the anger that had seized him as he realised what the real reason could be for Hinata's willingness to teach him. _'No, surely she's not just doing this because of her feelings for him. But maybe... Would she be this eager to help me if I asked her in my own body? Would she even help me at all?' _Sasuke wondered frantically, starting to lose control of his chakra and temper simultaneously as he felt yet another shooting pain in his chest, hurting worse than before. However, remembering what he was supposed to be doing, he hurriedly tried to suppress his feelings, attempting to soothe his sore ego and the persistent ache. _'Of course Hinata would help, she wouldn't turn me down if I asked her, she's too soft and kind-hearted to do something like that anyway...'_

Out of the blue, Sasuke's conscience kicked in for the first time in a long while and began scolding him. _'Hey, if you're asking Hinata to teach you just because you know she won't be able to refuse, aren't you kinda taking advantage of her? I know you want to get stronger but using the situation of being in the body of the guy she likes just to get __slightly__ improved chakra control because of some stupid rivalry isn't right.'_

Sasuke's mind shuddered to a halt. He hadn't really bothered to think about what he was doing or stopped to consider that the reason he had for it wasn't a particularly good one either. Actually, now he _did _bother to think about it, Sasuke felt a small, awkward twinge of guilt about training with Hinata, before he chose to ignore it and argue back. _'I'm not using her- she was the one who offered to give me advice in the first place and I accepted,' _he retaliated crossly. _'Anyway, I'm not using the body switch on purpose to do this and this isn't just about Naruto, I promised myself I'd do anything for power, remember?'_

His conscience tried to come up with a smart come-back but ended up sighing in defeat. _'Fine, fine, have it your way. I bet __Naruto's__ not abusing his situation like this...'_

* * *

_A couple of nights ago, in a ramen restaurant not so far away..._

As she brought another bowl of steaming hot ramen, Ayame stared bemusedly at the young shinobi who had been wolfing down bowls in front of her- Sousuke, no, Sasuke wasn't it? _'It's odd seeing Naruto's teammate here, he usually only comes with his team,' _she wondered to herself as she put the bowl down in front of a grinning 'Sasuke' who immediately began to dig in with glee. _'I guess Naruto's been rubbing off on him,'_ she thought, a gentle smile spreading across her face as she watched the boy eat, _'and it's nice to see him looking more cheerful today.'_

Soon enough, 'Sasuke' had finished his ninth bowl and without hesitation, he whipped out a small wallet and started ordering: "Another bowl of miso ra- argh!"

Naruto groaned as he gazed in despair at his near-empty wallet, save for a few copper coins jangling as he fiddled with it. His stomach let out a very audible rumble and he began to scratch the back of his neck in embarrassment as he slowly raised his eyes to meet Ayame's. To his surprise, instead of chuckling or looking mildly exasperated as she usually did when he ran out of money, she seemed slightly...sympathetic? Naruto blinked in confusion, puzzled by the strange look of pity on her face. _'Huh? Why is she acting so weird and concerned today? I know I'm in the jerk's body but does that really make such a big difference with her? Wait, hang on a minute...'_

Naruto's mouth twisted into a huge, devilish smirk as he suddenly had one of his warped ideas. _'Kekekeke, this could work!"_

"You've no more money to buy another bowl, Sasuke-san?" Ayame couldn't help asking even though the problem was obvious, feeling sorry for the boy who was staring forlornly at the counter. _'Poor guy, he hardly ever comes here and the one time he does, he can't afford it,' _she thought sadly.

"No," Naruto sighed, running his fingers through his dark hair with a deep, mournful look. "I was _so_ sure I'd brought enough ryō too," he continued dejectedly, beginning to pout as cutely as he possibly could. "I've been enjoying coming here with my team lately, but none of them would come today with me so I decided to come on my own," Naruto confessed as he turned his face towards Ayame's, bombarding her with the most adorable puppy-dog eyed expression he could muster, "and I was _really _looking forward to a couple of bowls of ramen after such a _hard, tiring _mission today."

Ayame's lower lip quivered as she finally surrendered to her pity for the genin gazing hopelessly at her. _'Aw, he's such a sweetie, and he looks so desperate too...I can't just leave the poor kid sitting there like that, with nothing to eat. I'm sure no one will mind if I give him just one free bowl...'_

"Hey, don't mention this to my father but I'll give you another bowl for free," she whispered to 'Sasuke', giggling as the thirteen-year-old gave her a completely bewildered look, before perking up. "Oh, you don't _have_ to-" he began modestly but Ayame interrupted, cutting him off: "No, don't worry about it! I insist!" Smiling as 'Sasuke' beamed brightly at her, she started to make her way to prepare the ramen as he called, "Thank you, Ayame-san! I'll never forget this!"

'_Never forget this? It's only a small favour,' _Ayame chuckled to herself as she turned her back. _'Then again, he does look like he'll be a real hottie when he's older,' _she contemplated, before blushing madly after her imagination began to conjure up images of a _very_ good-looking post-pubescent Sasuke.

At the counter, Naruto was trying his best not to burst out in hysterics. _'Wow, I can't believe it actually worked! Hehehe, maybe I should try this more often...'_

_

* * *

_

"I-I think we should finish n-now, Naruto-kun" Hinata softly suggested, snapping Sasuke out of the trance-like state he was in. Pulling his now-sweaty hands apart, Sasuke nodded in agreement as he replied, "Yeah, I think my team's meant to be meeting up soon."

"Ah, alright," Hinata confirmed, slowly pulling herself up from the ground. "Um, w-were you able to m-master the technique, Naruto-kun?" she asked gently, her lavender eyes filled with curiosity. "I d-did use my Byakugan to c-check on you once and y-you seemed to be doing very well," she shyly confessed, focusing on twiddling her fingers instead of having to meet Sasuke's eyes.

"Yep, I think I've just about managed to perfect it," Sasuke answered boldly, confident that he had been able to learn the technique thoroughly, although he was too proud to acknowledge that he still couldn't fully control his two energies. Hinata seemed to have noticed this though as she advised him, "Y-you should practise a bit more, j-just to make sure but otherwise, I-I'm glad to hear you've s-succeeded, Naruto-kun."

"Right," replied Sasuke, soaking up her words like a sponge having learned by now that the Hyūga heiress' advice was almost always invaluable (despite he couldn't quite admit it to himself). "Thanks for taking the time to teach me that technique," he continued, his long forgotten manners returning to him for a moment. "It's... a very good technique and I think it'll be very useful," Sasuke awkwardly concluded, struggling to thank Hinata and show how grateful he was due to his pride.

"Y-Y-You're welcome, N-Naruto-kun," Hinata stammered in response, her cheeks flushing magenta as her eyes twinkled with happiness at Sasuke's gratitude. Her face was full of pure joy as she smiled at Sasuke, who suddenly felt a peculiar mixture of feelings sweep over him like a tsunami. Unable to stop himself, he blurted out "W-Would you like to train with me again sometime?"

Hinata turned an even darker shade of red and she beamed at Sasuke whose heart was beginning to beat erratically. "O-Of course I-I would," she responded immediately, overjoyed at the prospect. "W-would meeting here again at f-five in the evening on Saturday be alright w-with you?"

"Yeah, sure," Sasuke quickly decided, having managed to recover from the strange rush of emotion, although for some reason his heart refused to stop pounding. "I guess I'll see you then," he said, raising his hand to say goodbye to the heiress who was quietly beginning to leave.

"G-Goodbye, Naruto-kun!" Hinata cried, turning around to wave bashfully at him, before gracefully disappearing into the golden trees.

"Bye," Sasuke murmured softly as he watched the Hyūga heiress vanish into the forest, the beige and indigo blur now lost in a whirl of leaves. As soon as she had left, he stumbled a few steps backwards and leaned on the towering bark of the cherry blossom, rubbing his sore forehead with a sweaty palm. _'I'm definitely going down with something...'_

* * *

I don't think this is a particularly good chapter I've written but ho hum. Hopefully the next one will be better :) Any kind of feedback or advice is appreciated as usual :D I'm considering including Sasuke's conscience/Inner Sasuke a bit more in the story so I'd like to know if you think that's a good idea or not.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's note: Wow, that was a _much_ longer hiatus than I planned. However, I've decided to complete this fic because I couldn't leave it unfinished :D I apologise now for my very rusty writing skills.

Switched Chapter 5

"NAR-uh-SASUKE UCHIHA COMING THROUGH!" roared Naruto as he burst through the bustle of the early morning markets, ignoring the stupefied expressions and the bewildered double takes many people were giving him. Catching sight of a familiar Genin clad in an emerald green jumpsuit accompanied by a stoic long haired companion, he greeted them with an enthusiastic yell: "Hey Lee, Neji, you guys doing alright?"

"Eh? Oh, good morning Sasuke-san!" answered Lee, with a puzzled grin on his face as Neji immediately activated his Byakugan, muttering, "Worst. Imposter. Ever."

Ignoring his more cynical teammate, Lee continued, "I am thrilled to see you are in a very energetic mood today my youthful friend!"

"Yep, I sure am," replied Naruto cheerfully, giving Lee a thumbs-up as he passed a now-stunned Neji who was rubbing his eyes vigorously and spluttering, "It...it cannot be Uchiha...surely not..."

* * *

Jogging towards his team's meeting place at a brisk pace, a bored kunoichi in a cherry coloured qipao came into Naruto's focus as he sped towards her. His lips curving into a happy grin, Naruto greeted Sakura with a wave and a cheerful "Hey Sakura-chan!"

Sakura's head whipped round instantly to see who had called her, her cheeks flushing the same shade as her hair. "Hello Sasuke-kun... sorry, I mean Naruto," she hastily corrected herself as Naruto's smile rapidly twisted into a scowl.

"Geez Sakura-chan, you were _there_ when me and the jerk changed bodies," Naruto began to whine as Sakura looked guiltily at him with an embarrassed blush. "It's been nearly a week now and every time I go up to you, you _still_ think I'm Sasuke," he moaned.

"Well, I'm obviously not going to get to grips with it as fast as you," Sakura interrupted, her voice betraying her frustration at her mistake, "since you're actually in his body, Naruto. This whole switch thing is crazy to begin with and it's difficult to remember that this person you've known your entire life is now this other person who you've _also_ known your entire life," she carried on as Naruto listened patiently. "Since it's you and Sasuke-kun who switched, that just messes everything up further: I like you and I, um, like Sasuke-kun in a different way but now Sasuke-kun is you but you look like Sasuke-kun and so everything-aaarrgh!" Sakura wailed, gesticulating wildly with her hands to demonstrate her confusion.

"Tell me about it," agreed Naruto, shaking his head as his teammate clutched hers and groaned. "I mean, I have to now get up every morning and look at this jerk's mug in the mirror and I'm there thinking"-

"Wow, that's a big improvement," Sakura joked, as Naruto grimaced at her, rolling his eyes. "You know what, though," he replied, a devilish smirk stretching across his lips, "it's so much fun pulling faces in the mirror in Sasuke's body. Come on, look at this one," Naruto said, pulling his mouth apart with his fingers and waggling his tongue at a bemused Sakura, before changing quickly to a manic, exaggerated grin and then scrunching his face up into a parody of one of Sasuke's snooty 'I'm so much better than you' expressions.

"Naruto, you shouldn't mess with Sasuke-kun's features like that," scolded Sakura, her mouth twitching as she tried desperately not to laugh, until Naruto blew a fat raspberry at her and they both dissolved into giggles.

"Hey, I've got an idea," Naruto piped up after they had both recovered from their laughing fits. "Since I'm in Sasuke's body, now you can find out if you only like him for his looks or not," he said mischievously as Sakura choked and turned a fierce crimson. "Of course I like Sasuke-kun for his mind as well," she retaliated before squeaking as Naruto drew his face dangerously close to hers.

"Hm, you sure about that?," Naruto purred in her ear, and although Sakura glared at him, he noted that she wasn't as quick to push him away as normal. "Come on Sakura-chan, what about a quick hug?" he continued in a low voice, as she began to open her mouth to tick him off. "You know... we could both get what we want out of the way then..."

Looking at her teammate's hopeful expression, Sakura fiddled nervously with her fingers as she considered the offer. _'He has a point... it would be really easy t_o_ pretend it's Sasuke-kun and maybe it would make Naruto stop flirting as much with me,'_ she wondered. _'Sasuke-kun isn't probably going to show up for at least a few more minutes...'_

"Okay," murmured Sakura, as Naruto gaped at her, having expected her to shout the idea down immediately. "But we'll make it very quick," she said sternly and Naruto nodded vigorously, determined not to let a once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity be lost.

Making a few awkward steps towards her until there was a barely a couple of inches between them, Naruto extended his arms tentatively before wrapping them around the kunoichi's shoulders. Sakura mimicked his actions before giving him a gentle squeeze, which was returned roughly but full of affection. Looking up into a besotted pair of dark eyes, Sakura's heart rate accelerated as she began to lean forwards slowly, forgetting who they truly belonged to...

"Naruto, I know she knows it's you this time but that does _not_ make it any better."

Raising his eyes to see a unmistakeable look of murder on his teammate's face, Naruto forced his own into a terrified smile as Sakura blurted out, "Good morning Sasuke-kun!"

* * *

"Stupid mission. Stupid Hokage. Stupid body swap jutsu," ranted Sasuke under his breath as one of the hefty weeds he was pulling finally emerged from the ground only to splatter his clothes with mud. Although Team Seven, due to the progress they had all made since the Chūnin exams, had been assigned more difficult C rank missions recently, the results of Ino's jutsu had led to Tsunade giving them 'safe' (_'In other words, boring and useless'_ in Sasuke's opinion) D rank missions to prevent any potential dangers that could be caused by the body switch. Sasuke had to grudgingly admit that the Hokage did have a good reason though- Naruto's unbelievable amount of stamina meant he had little to no concept of conserving chakra during battle which combined with his unawareness of Sasuke's cursed seal could lead to a very dangerous situation. Of course, this didn't mean that Sasuke wasn't desperate to get back to 'real' missions and continue his pursuit of power.

Snapped out of his sulking by a yell of "NARUTO! You've just got mud over my new leggings!", Sasuke glanced up to see a sheepish looking Naruto dodge a punch from a furious Sakura while making hasty apologies. A pool of cold anger that been simmering since that morning stirred up inside Sasuke's stomach again but he inhaled deeply, clutched the next plant tightly and tried his best to ignore his now quarrelling teammates. It had been an unpleasant surprise to see the two of them embracing that morning and Sasuke was more than a little irritated by the uses that Naruto was apparently putting his body to. However, Sasuke had not bothered to confront either of them about what he had witnessed, haunted by the knowledge that while Sakura was at least aware of the body switch, Hinata Hyūga was _not_ and was merrily convinced that it was the real Naruto who had asked to train with her later today. Sasuke still didn't have a clue what had possessed him to ask her at the end of their last session and had decided to put it down to the failsafe excuse of 'anything for power'.

'_At least I'm not trying to seduce her like the dead last,'_ Sasuke argued, anticipating another strict lecture on the morals of taking advantage of people by his newly awakened conscience. _'It's only a training session, she was perfectly happy to go along to it and,'_ he thought more darkly, _'she'd __definitely__ do exactly the same thing if I was in my own body and not Naruto's.'_

'_I don't think you're as sure of that as you pretend to be,'_ interrupted his conscience as Sasuke began trying to shove his doubts about the Hyūga heiress' actions to the far recesses of his mind. _'Well, you should go and make the most of your time together tonight, considering how you've been looking forward to seeing her all day...'_

"I've been looking forward to the _training_, not _her_," hissed Sasuke vehemently, causing Kakashi to jump and give him a uneasy look. Sighing as he returned to his book, Kakashi wondered_, 'Maybe I need to start pestering Inoichi about that counter jutsu more urgently...'_

* * *

'_Ram. Snake. Tiger.'_

Focusing intensely on moulding his physical and spiritual energies into the correct proportions, Sasuke's hands formed the final sign of the sequence as he cried, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" The instant he called this, a cloud of white smoke erupted next to him as a identical copy of Naruto's body slowly became visible within the mist. Ignoring his new creation though, Sasuke's eyes flickered instantly to the pair of lavender orbs that were scanning him carefully, waiting for an opinion to come from their owner's pursed lips. "How was that?"

"Um, y-your energy ratios were incredibly close to the ideal proportions needed for the technique but you're still putting in j-just a little too much physical energy which is then released as waste chakra," concluded Hinata after a few moment's analysis of what she had just seen. Deactivating her Byakugan for a second when she saw her companion's gritted teeth, she quickly tried to reassure him. "N-Naruto-kun, that was still a really good effort and it was a tiny amount of unnecessary chakra that was released. You should b-be really happy with all the progress you've made this evening."

Touched by the kunoichi's compliments (which did not flow easily from her lips as he had found to his surprise), Sasuke responded with a grateful "Thanks", sparking off an immediate spate of blushing and finger twiddling from Hinata. The Hyūga heiress had decided that they should move on from moulding chakra during meditation to moulding it when performing jutsus since Sasuke had now mastered the former. The previous hour had been spent with Sasuke repeatedly carrying out the Shadow Clone jutsu while Hinata had monitored his chakra control during his attempts. Although he had made substantial improvements over the course of the training session, his strict upbringing meant that for Sasuke, anything less than perfection was deemed unsatisfactory so he tried again.

As he began to manipulate his chakra, Sasuke's mind hovered over the annoying problem that had been playing on his mind since the beginning of the session. Although Hinata had assured him that the technique she was teaching him would work for any jutsu, Sasuke had had to request practicing the Shadow Clone one since it was Naruto's most important jutsu but the Uchiha barely used it himself. In truth, concentrating on this slight bother was a useful distraction from the real issue troubling Sasuke: that Hinata was only helping him because he was in her crush's body. _'It'd be so much simpler without the stupid switch,'_ thought Sasuke as he imagined himself in his real form, a fireball about to erupt from his throat as Hinata admired his flawless control...

"Y-you're losing it there, Naruto-kun," Hinata interjected as Sasuke quickly shook himself out of his daydream, having momentarily forgotten what he was doing. Taking in the look of concern in Hinata's gentle eyes, panic began to faintly bubble up in Sasuke' chest as he started worrying that Hinata might only have agreed to train with him because she felt she had to take whatever chances she got to be with Naruto. Unable to keep silent about this any longer, Sasuke questioned her: "Hinata, are you okay with training me? I didn't force you into this by asking you?"

"Of-of course not," replied Hinata in surprise, her features expressing mild confusion. "I'm here because I-I want to help you, not because I felt that I had to help you. A-Also," she continued shyly, avoiding Sasuke's eyes, "I really like being able to give people advice and aid them b-b-because it makes me feel useful."

'_I see,'_ realised Sasuke, not noticing that the kunoichi was becoming increasingly embarrassed by his intense gaze. _'She's here because it's what she wants to do, not because it's what anyone else wants her to do.'_ A wave of relief washed over him, strengthened by the knowledge that judging by what Hinata had just said, she would have been perfectly willing to share her skills with him if he was in his own body as well. Released from the wrath of his conscience and his own anxieties, Sasuke felt strangely cheerful.

"N-N-Naruto-kun," stammered Hinata, as Sasuke suddenly noticed how fiercely she was blushing and redirected his stare elsewhere. "Um, I-I think you should stop practicing now, because you've made a lot of clones so it could be d-dangerous if you used up any more of your chakra."

"Alright, I will," Sasuke agreed reluctantly, not wanting to cause any distress to the heiress. However, he knew that he still had access to unbelievably vast reserves of chakra, and probably could have continued to create clones for at least a few more hours. _'Damn it, I don't want to leave her right now...'_

A flash of inspiration struck Sasuke at that moment. "You know, Hinata," he said, drawing closer to her, "I owe you a new technique now, don't I?"

"Oh, it's f-fine, you don't owe me anything," Hinata modestly replied but Sasuke ignored her and carried on.

"I'll teach you one of my jutsu," Sasuke suggested, feeling obliged to return the Hyuga's favour. "Since you've focused your training so much on being a short range fighter, I can help you with your long range fighting instead. I could teach you my famil-er-the Shadow Shuriken Jutsu that Sasuke taught me since that's a useful technique against distant opponents."

"Th-thank you, I'd like it if you could," Hinata smiled, her cheeks flushing happily as she began taking out her weapons. Pleased that his offer had been accepted, Sasuke triumphantly retorted at his conscience, _'See, I'm paying her back now so I'm not using her at all, not that I __ever__ was.'_

Returning his attention to his new student, Sasuke immediately noticed how uncomfortable Hinata's grasp on the metal was and was unable to stop himself from chastising her: "You're holding the shuriken wrong."

"F-forgive me, I haven't used them in a-a long time," Hinata stuttered in embarrassment as Sasuke sighed, before she yelped as he clasped her wrists softly and began to delicately rearrange her fingers into the correct positions. Sasuke was surprised when what had seemed like a simple task became rapidly more difficult, his palms becoming drenched in sweat as he fumbled clumsily with Hinata's grip.

Having finally succeeded, a now hot and bothered Sasuke released Hinata's trembling hands with a stammered, "Uh, there y-you go." Hinata blurted out gibberish in response as Sasuke tried to slow down his thumping heart and decided he must be allergic to whatever hand cream she used. Now he bothered to think about it, he'd never been so close to a girl before- at least not voluntarily- but surely that had nothing to do with the reaction he had just experienced, right?

'_I'm sure it's nothing to worry about,'_ Sasuke consoled himself as he began to explain the basics of the technique to a now-recovered Hinata. _'Nothing to worry about at all...'_

* * *

I promise more SasuHina in the next chapter (which will not take two years again to appear) to make up for the lack of it in this one. Feedback, as always, is appreciated :)


	6. Chapter 6

Author's note: Thank you very much to all the readers, especially those who reviewed, faved and/or put this story on alert :D Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Switched Chapter 6

Tapping his foot impatiently as he waited in the grocer's queue, Sasuke gazed out of the window at the dismal weather, longing for summer's blessing of golden sunshine instead of autumn's curse of sudden showers. A few times, he had sworn he'd caught a glimpse of a girl with indigo hair and a cream jacket hovering on a corner nearby the shop, but she had vanished as soon as she had appeared. Sasuke started wondering if he was hallucinating Hinata Hyūga's presence and groaned inwardly at the thought- it was bad enough that she was popping up in his thoughts with a scarily high frequency, even without mentioning a certain dream about her he'd had last night.

After making his purchase, Sasuke exited the shop, noticing to his relief that the morning's drizzle had finally stopped. As a small ray of sunlight broke through the sea of clouds, the Uchiha raised his eyes to check the overcast skies for any signs of them clearing, completely unaware of the girl he was walking towards... until he clipped her foot and tripped her.

Squeaking in surprise as she toppled over, the girl grabbed Sasuke in desperation who yelped as her nails dug sharply into his chest. Wrapping a sturdy pair of arms around her slight frame to steady her, he helped the trembling girl to regain her balance. Sasuke began to apologise but froze as his gaze met a pair of familiar lavender eyes.

On seeing his startled face, Hinata instantly leapt away from Sasuke as if he had given her an electric shock, her entire face painted scarlet. The two Genin stood in silence for a few seconds gaping at each other, before Sasuke awkwardly began, "Uh, I'm sorry about that. Are you okay?"

"I-I-I'm fine, thank you N-N-Naruto-kun," Hinata stuttered in response, unable to look at Sasuke's face in embarrassment. After another uncomfortable pause, Sasuke started to ask, "How are y...?"

But before he could finish the question, Hinata made a clumsy bow, stammered out an incoherent goodbye and dashed off, leaving a confused shinobi behind her. Sasuke stared at the street she had disappeared down, feeling vaguely disappointed that the Hyūga heiress had left so quickly. Usually, the Uchiha prodigy detested meeting old classmates and the forced conversation that inevitably followed, finding to it to be a waste of time. However, Sasuke thought as he walked back to Naruto's house, he wouldn't have minded a chat with Hinata Hyūga.

* * *

'I wish this damn rain would just _stop_ already,' growled Sasuke, shivering in his soaked jumpsuit as he made his way back from the Hokage residence after yet another tedious D rank assignment. Unfortunately for Team Seven, the farmer whose crop they had been harvesting had refused to listen to their pleas for a break from the torrential downpour, insisting that 'a bit a' rotten weather like this'll toughen yer young 'uns up.'

Walking briskly through the training grounds, his sharp hearing picked up faint clanks of metal hitting wood. _'Who on earth would be out practising in this weather?'_ Sasuke thought, puzzled as he turned in the direction of the noise. As the sounds became louder, he concealed himself behind a large tree, before peeping out from behind it, curious to see who the shinobi was. To Sasuke's surprise, he saw Hinata, in a violet raincoat and matching wellies, pulling a few shuriken out of a drenched training dummy. Her teeth were chattering slightly but her eyes had a steely, focused look in them as she shook the raindrops off and began to prepare her throw again. Sasuke immediately recognised her stance as that used for the Shadow Shuriken jutsu he had taught her the previous evening. Despite the cold, a warm feeling blossomed in the pit of Sasuke's stomach as he watched Hinata perform the technique and noted her improvement.

'_She must be crazy. Or maybe just incredibly determined ,'_ Sasuke considered, admiring his training partner's resolve. Memories flickered through his mind of the time he had spent by himself practising new techniques in similarly appalling conditions. _'I guess we share the same kind of craziness then,'_ he thought, leaning forwards to try and get a better view of how Hinata was doing- only for a branch to snap loudly underneath his foot. _'Crap!'_

Hinata dropped the shuriken at once, ignoring the clatter of them hitting the ground as her head whipped round rapidly, searching for the perpetrator. "Show yourself!" she cried, making the hand sign to activate her Byakugan as Sasuke hastily hid himself behind the tree again, his heart thumping against his ribs. Hearing the heiress' sharp intake of breath, he knew she'd caught him.

At that same moment, he realised what he'd been doing for the past few minutes probably counted as stalking. _'Hey, I'm no creepy stalker, I'm just...um... making sure her training's going fine. Yeah, I can't let her taint the Uchiha clan's prized techniques by learning them wrong... argh, what am I gonna tell her though?'_

"N-Naruto-kun?" Hinata called out shyly, and Sasuke came out from behind the tree to see her flushing a vivid shade of pink and staring at him in bewilderment. "Hi Hinata," he replied, trying his best to sound casual and hoping that his embarrassment wasn't showing on his face. "Er, I... didn't want to disturb you since you were so busy. Didn't want to make you angry. Uh... I've only been here a couple of minutes and I wasn't doing anything pervy so don't worry, 'kay?" Sasuke clumsily explained, giving an increasingly bemused Hinata a thumbs up in an attempt to mimic Naruto.

'_Well, seems like all those years of alienating yourself from other human beings have finally paid off,'_ a little voice in Sasuke's head remarked wryly.

"Oh, d-don't worry, it's fine," Hinata responded with a small smile, pleased to see it was 'Naruto' and not the image of a hulking enemy she had envisaged. "I was just practising that new jutsu y-you taught me yesterday. Do you think I've got any b-better?" she enquired bashfully.

"Your disguising of the second shuriken is less obvious than before and although it still needs work, your aim has improved from yesterday," answered Sasuke truthfully, causing Hinata's face to lighten up with quiet delight.

"I promise I'll keep working on it. Th-thank you very much for teaching me the technique," Hinata said gratefully, beaming at Sasuke who suddenly found himself unable to look her in the eye. "No problem, just a jutsu for a jutsu," he mumbled, feeling happy at her gratitude yet unusually nervous at the same time. Hinata nodded, twiddling her fingers while Sasuke fixed his eyes firmly on the forest floor and decided that the Hyūga heiress' shy nature was rubbing off on him.

"So, ah, how are you doing Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked when the break in the conversation became too uncomfortable for her to bear, finally managing to divert Sasuke's attention from his feet.

"I'm fine," Sasuke lied, trying to imagine what Hinata's reaction would be if he told her about the events of the past week. Probably fainting on the spot, he decided.

"And S-Sakura-chan and Sasuke-san? Are they doing well?" continued Hinata, oblivious to Sasuke gritting his teeth as he realised he was the one who was addressed the most formally. _'Well, I never bother with honorifics anyway so I can't complain,'_ he reflected. _'Maybe if I tried calling her Hinata-chan...'_

Breaking out of his trance, Sasuke replied, "Oh, Sakura's doing fine and Sasuke...ugh..."

* * *

_At the beginning of today's mission..._

"Idiot, what _are_ you doing?" hissed Sasuke, struggling to release himself from Naruto's grip as he was pulled behind a massive haystack. "Let go of me," he demanded but Naruto shushed him as he turned to face his teammate.

"Oi jerk, I just have to ask you something quickly, okay?" Naruto tried to whisper, only for his voice to be a tiny bit quieter than his usual volume. "How did you manage to get one when you're five years too young? Did you trick someone by transforming yourself?"

Sasuke gaped at him, completely baffled. "What in the hell are you talking about, Naruto?"

"I'm talking about your Sharingan tattoo, man!" Naruto replied excitedly, pulling down the huge collar to reveal the Cursed Seal mark on his neck and causing Sasuke to choke in the process. "It's _so_ cool with all the fancy symbols and stuff. I wanna get one too, like a spiral or a shuriken; come on Sasuke, you HAVE to tell me where you got it..."

"N-Naruto, you... it's not...gah!" spluttered Sasuke, words failing him as Naruto kept pestering him: "Come on Sasuke, tell me _pleeeeeeeaaaase_..."

* * *

"Um, Naruto-kun?" Hinata timidly asked, looking in concern at the cringing boy in front of her shaking his head and muttering, "At least he didn't find out the truth, thank _goodness_."

"Sorry, sometimes he really gets on my nerves"-_'Wait, I'm insulting myself!'_ Sasuke realised-"but Sasuke's alright really," he finished, repeating what he had overheard his teammate say to Jiraiya once. "What do you think of him?"

"Hm..." Hinata paused for a moment and Sasuke instantly regretted raising the question, not sure if he wanted to hear her response. "I think S-Sasuke-san's a very good shinobi and he seems nice," she said thoughtfully, unaware of the involuntary smile her companion gave her at this, "but he's, um, kinda intimidating and aloof to be honest."

"Oh," murmured Sasuke, crashing back down to earth. _'I suppose I really should have expected that,'_ he thought glumly. _'Kakashi always tells me I should try and act less coldly around others.'_

"Naruto-kun, I really think y-you should go back home. I know it's stopped raining now but your clothes are soaked and you could catch cold," Hinata said, giving Sasuke a worried look. "Yeah, I will," he agreed, before hearing Hinata stammer "Are y-you free tomorrow m-morning?"

"I am," nodded Sasuke. Hinata blushed a ferocious shade of crimson and then hurriedly asked "Would-you-like-to-train-with-me-then?"

"Of course I would," Sasuke answered gladly, before continuing, "Meet up at the usual place?"

"Y-yes, that would be fine," Hinata responded more calmly, stunned at how forward she had just been. "See you then Naruto-kun!" she called, returning the wave Sasuke gave her as he bounded off from branch to branch through the forest. After the bright orange jumpsuit had faded into the leaves, the Hyūga heiress clutched her shuriken tightly and started hopping on the spot, squealing, "I-can't-believe-I-asked-him-and-he-actually-said-yes-omigosh-he-said-yes!"

* * *

"I'm starving," Sasuke announced to his training partner, who gave a soft giggle as his stomach rumbled loudly to back up his point. "Do you mind if we quit for lunch now? We've been training for three hours solid so that's pretty good," he carried on, his face slightly redder than before as Hinata nodded in agreement. The Uchiha and Hyūga heirs had met together earlier that morning at the 53rd training ground and although neither of them had learned any new techniques, both felt that the morning had been a success. Hinata had been thrilled when 'Naruto' had deemed her attempts at the Shadow Shuriken Jutsu "pretty damn good" ('perfect' in Uchiha terms), while Sasuke had been equally pleased when he managed to create five Shadow clones without wasting any chakra whatsoever, resulting in a cry of "That was fantastic!" from Hinata.

"I'm gonna go and buy myself something to eat," declared Sasuke but as he turned to leave, Hinata called him: "W-Wait a minute! I thought you may get hungry after training so I made two bento boxes for us this morning. Although you don't have to have it if y-you don't want it," she said softly.

"No, I'd like that a lot," Sasuke replied, greedily watching as the Hyūga heiress took two large boxes out of her bag and passed one over to him with a pair of chopsticks. "I've not had a bento lunch in years, not since my mo..." he trailed off sadly, as bittersweet memories of his earliest days in the academy came back to him in a flash. It was always the most normal things that seemed to trigger the grief, and he never saw it coming.

"I only ever remember you eating r-ramen at lunchtimes," commented Hinata, breaking her chopsticks neatly. "Iruka-sensei always used to tell you off for stealing the teachers' kettle to boil water for it," she chuckled, "but h-he never stopped you. I thought he'd hide it better but you always found it."

"Huh? Oh yeah, I always did that," Sasuke responded, suddenly understanding who Hinata was referring to as he bit into a chunk of meat. _'Mmm, this sauce is nice...tastes homemade too...'_

"You used to say you ate ramen for every meal as well," recalled Hinata as her fellow Genin began to wolf down his meal. "Y-you don't still do that, do you? It wouldn't be good for your health if you did," she asked anxiously.

"Ov coursh noh," Sasuke lied thickly through a mouthful of rice, vividly remembering the day of the switch when he had opened Naruto's cupboard for the first time to be confronted with cups of instant ramen and nothing else. _'Hinata would have had a heart attack,'_ he supposed, picturing the look of horror that would have been on her face had she been there.

The conversation soon died down as the two shinobi tucked in to their lunches hungrily, Hinata sneaking occasional glances at Sasuke to see how he was finding the meal. When he began picking at the last few grains stuck in the corners, she shyly questioned him: "Um, how did you find it? W-was it nice?"

"It was good, thanks for making some for me," answered Sasuke gratefully, causing Hinata to blush badly and play with her fingers. He had thoroughly enjoyed the food, with the mixture of flavours and ingredients making a pleasant change from the bland rice balls he prepared every day. Gazing appreciatively at the Hyūga heiress, his conscience suggested, _'You know, you should pay her back for this favour. You were saying a jutsu for a jutsu earlier, how about a meal for a meal? That would be a nice thing of you to do.'_

'_Yeah, but I'm no cook like her. The best thing I can make is plain old omusubi with okaka, and it's kinda terrible in comparison,'_ Sasuke retorted, thinking about how long it would take him to learn a few complex recipes before images of numerous past kitchen disasters began appearing in his mind's eye. _'Actually, that's probably __not__ a good idea. Hm...'_ he paused, deliberating over what to do, _'...oh, I should have thought of that earlier!'_

"Hey Hinata, in return for this, I'll take you out for a meal in the evening later this week," proposed Sasuke, confused when Hinata's jaw dropped in astonishment and she began gawking at him. Becoming increasingly alarmed by how red her face was getting, he quickly continued, "I'll pay for you 'cos it's my treat. How about we meet on Wednesday by the cinema? Could you make seven o'clock?"

"D-Definitely, that would be n-no problem at all," stuttered Hinata, trying to recover from her shock at the offer she had just been made. "I'm r-really looking forward to it, N-Naruto-kun!" she said enthusiastically, as Sasuke watched her in bemusement. "I need to go now so I'll see y-you then, I guess."

"Okay, bye," Sasuke called, exchanging a wave with his retreating companion, before taking the path leading to Team Seven's allocated meeting point for that afternoon's mission. He was still perplexed by Hinata's strange reaction; he had merely expected her to cheerfully agree as usual, not get all flustered like she had done instead.

'_Huh, did I say something wrong or mean by accident?"_ wondered Sasuke, trying to remember exactly what he had said to the Hyūga heiress. _'I only asked her out to dinner in the evening...hang on, that sounds like I asked her out on a date...that means she must think it's a __date__...and I'm still in the dobe's body...so Hinata thinks that Naruto's...oh no,'_ he thought in horror, having realised what he had done. _'Crap, getting stuck in Naruto's body is turning ME into an idiot as well!'_

* * *

And the mayhem continues... I am excited to announce that there is, unbelievably, a plan for the next chapter already although whether this makes any difference has yet to be seen (sweatdrops). Any feedback, questions, advice etc is appreciated as per usual :) See you in Chapter 7- where Sasuke somehow manages to get himself into an even bigger mess!


	7. Chapter 7

Author's note- Thanks to all the readers, particularly those who reviewed, put this story on alert or faved. Special thanks to **RainClaw321** whose ideas have been used in this chapter. This is the longest chapter I've ever written and it took a long while. Hope you enjoy it :)

Switched Chapter 7

"Are there any shirts in here that are NOT orange?" growled Sasuke as he ransacked Naruto's wardrobe, flinging another jacket onto the swelling pile of clothes on the floor. Although it was just a meal (and definitely _not_ a date), Sasuke liked to wear something different to his usual attire when going out, and tonight was no exception. Unfortunately, his plan to borrow one of Naruto's better outfits had collapsed when he had discovered Naruto's taste in clothing was nothing like his own. Nor like anybody else's, for that matter.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures then," Sasuke muttered as he positioned himself in front of the mirror, readying the hand signs for the Transformation jutsu. Visualising his plain short-sleeved navy shirt, light blue jeans and favourite black coat, he cried "Transform!"

Inspecting his reflection as the clouds around him began to evaporate, Sasuke was satisfied with his clothing choices but something seemed wrong. As he stared into a pair of deep, ebony eyes, it finally clicked: he was looking at himself in his real body for the first time in over a week.

Sasuke stood there for a while, gazing mutely at the image in the mirror. He was filled with a strange reluctance to end the transformation. This was the real boy who had asked Hinata out and was due to meet her in an hour, not her beloved 'Naruto-kun' as she believed. How would she react if he met her like this and explained everything to her? Would she still go with him even if he wasn't her crush? Sasuke groaned as the words Hinata had used to describe him a few days ago came back to haunt him: _'intimidating and aloof.'_ If that was her true opinion of him, she would probably still agree to come but out of fear. _'Even if she said I seem nice, she could have only said that to be polite. Maybe she doesn't even like me at all,'_ Sasuke considered gloomily. The last thought made him want to forget the whole thing and just stay in Naruto's room all night.

'_Hang on, there's no way I can stand Hinata up like that- she'd be gutted. That and she'd never speak to me again,'_ realised Sasuke, shaking himself out of his sullen mood. _'And so what if she doesn't like me? When this switch is over, I'll make sure that changes,'_ he thought determinedly, the fiery spirit of the Uchiha clan awakening in him. _'I'm the last Uchiha prodigy, not some spineless loser who gives up easily.'_

Quitting the transformation, Sasuke readied himself again and repeated it, this time to produce a lively blond shinobi wearing the same clothes. "Sorted," he murmured as he quickly ran a comb through his spiky hair and grabbed his watch and wallet off the table. As he unlocked the door and took his first breath of the night-time air, Sasuke's stern frown softened. _'Maybe tonight won't be so bad after all,'_ he silently hoped, _'and what's the worst that can happen anyway?'_

* * *

Getting to the cinema twenty minutes early was the first nomination of the evening, Sasuke decided, pacing in front of the entrance impatiently. Waiting had given him too much time to think and Sasuke's head was now swimming with potential difficulties. Where were they going to eat? What was he going to say to her? Did he have to walk her home? More importantly, was she going to try and hold his hand or, heavens forbid it, _hug_ him? At least Sasuke was confident that, unlike a few other girls he knew, Hinata probably wouldn't go overboard with her affection-surely she was too timid for that kind of attitude.

"Good evening Naruto-kun!"

'_Finally!'_ Sasuke cried in his head, relieved at the Hyūga heiress' arrival. Turning around to meet her, he replied, "Hey Hinata...oh."

Even though Sasuke knew he should have expected her to, it was a surprise to see Hinata wearing something different to her usual coat and blue pants combo. She was dressed in a turquoise long-sleeved top that left her shoulders bare, with the hem mid-thigh, and tight black ankle-length leggings. Her glossy indigo side bangs had been softly curled and her eyelids glittered faintly behind her thick black lashes. As she played nervously with her silver necklace and bangles, Sasuke felt his face begin to burn and hurriedly looked away. "You...look nice," he mumbled, feeling gawky in the elegant glow of his companion.

"Th-thank you. You look handsome as well," Hinata said happily, the compliment causing her complexion to redden as well. Sasuke wondered whether it was only the body of the shinobi he was stuck in or the clothes he was wearing as well that she was admiring. _'I wonder if she think_s_ the real me's good looking as well...hmph, what do I care?' _

Forcing himself to look her in the eye, Sasuke asked, "So, where do you wanna eat? I was thinking we could go to Shushuya, it does great Chinese food-"

"Hinata-sama does not enjoy Chinese cuisine so I suggest you think of somewhere else to go, Naruto," interjected a cold voice and to his horror, Sasuke saw the harsh stare of Neji Hyūga beside Hinata's embarrassed face. Unable to stop himself, he blurted out "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I am escorting Hinata-sama alongside you to your destination, on the orders of Hiashi-sama to make sure that nothing untoward happens to her," Neji answered, his tone becoming even frostier as Sasuke began to glower at him. "It is past nightfall in a very busy area of Konoha and Hiashi-sama is unwilling for his daughter to be on her own without protection."

'_Arrogant git, I can kick any thug's ass on my own,'_ Sasuke thought angrily, clenching his fists. He could not believe this. "Fine, I get it," he snapped, "so where would Hinata like to go instead?"

"Well, Hinata-sama?" Neji asked his cousin more gently, who twiddled her fingers as she considered her response. "Um, I'd like to g-go to Ichiraku Ramen please," she requested after a few seconds of thought.

"Are you sure?" Sasuke replied, checking that Hinata wasn't just asking for Ichiraku because she knew it was Naruto's favourite place. "We could go somewhere more expensive if you-"

"No, I want to go," interrupted Hinata in a firm voice, while Neji gave him a puzzled look and said, "I thought you really liked ramen, Naruto?"

"Of course I do," lied Sasuke, realising that while Hinata missed a lot of his un-Narutolike moments (possibly blinded by her affection), the genius of the Hyūga clan was likely to be much more perceptive. "Let's get going then!" he declared, hoping his fake grin didn't appear too forced as Hinata smiled back and Neji merely raised an eyebrow at him. _'Potential difficulty number one sorted then.'_

* * *

Potential difficulty number two was solved for the ten minute walk to Ichiraku by the intimidating presence of the Hyūga prodigy. Hinata felt too self-conscious to even make general enquiries after her crush's health in front of her cousin while Sasuke was wary of arousing his suspicions in any way. The Uchiha had started to panic after Neji had taken him to one side and questioned him about 'Sasuke', expressing concerns over how oddly hyper he'd been when Neji had met him on Saturday. Unable to think of any plausible excuses, Sasuke chose to ask if Neji had been utterly sure it wasn't an imposter and the genius' pondering of that successfully shut him up for the rest of the journey.

As the colourful sign promoting Ichiraku Ramen came into view, Hinata spoke for the first time: "Neji-niisan, thank you for accompanying me and N-Naruto-kun here. I appreciated it and please tell my father so when you return."

"No problem, Hinata-sama," Neji replied, bowing gracefully towards her. "I could stay with you for the rest of the evening to keep an eye on things," he continued, "since I-"

"That _won't_ be necessary," the Hyūga heiress cut in sharply, the formidable scowl on her face alarming Sasuke. Neji looked briefly unnerved at this but recovering himself, turned to Sasuke and said, "In this case, I expect you to make sure of Hinata-sama's safety on her return to the Hyūga compound, Naruto Uzumaki."

"I will," agreed Sasuke at once as the Hyūga prodigy made another small bow to Hinata and began moving towards him.

"Be aware that if anyone does cause Hinata-sama harm, the blame will rest solely at your door," warned Neji, stopping by Sasuke's side to hiss in his ear, "and if _you_ do _anything_ to her Uzumaki, _I will kill you_." Shivering at this, Sasuke nodded vigorously as Neji vanished into the crowd of people in the street.

"I'm s-sorry about that, Naruto-kun," Hinata apologised once he was out of earshot. "Neji-niisan is treating me much better like I told you before but, he gets, um, a little overprotective sometimes. My father is the s-same way."

"I see," Sasuke replied, raising his eyebrows which caused her to chuckle. "You go in first," he told Hinata, gesturing towards the entrance as a sense of long forgotten chivalry kicked in.

* * *

"Welcome to Ichirak- hello Naruto-san, we haven't seen you here in a while!" beamed Ayame as the two Genin came in, 'Naruto' giving her a big wave as he did so. "Have you been alright recently?" she continued, pointing out the free stools towards the end of the counter.

"Yes thanks, just been really busy this week," Sasuke truthfully answered, searching his memory to try and remember what the girl's name was, before Ayame noticed that he was accompanied. "Oh, hi sweetie, you're one of Kurenai-san's students who came here a couple of times before, aren't you?" she greeted Hinata, who politely smiled back at her. "Hinata Hyūga, that's it. Can you remember _my_ name?" she teased Hinata lightly but the heiress responded quickly, "Um, Ayame-san?"

"Well done!" laughed Ayame, her hazel eyes darting from the timid-looking kunoichi to Sasuke before mouthing 'Girlfriend?' at him, causing Sasuke to go bright red and violently shake his head. Deciding to work out _exactly_ what was going on between them later, she changed the subject: "Your teammate Sasuke-san has been coming here a lot over the last week, Naruto-san. I guess your love of ramen has finally rubbed off on him, though I'm surprised it took so long, haha! Some of your liveliness seems to have passed on to him as well. "

'_Wow, Naruto-kun's so influential,'_ Hinata thought admiringly, gazing at the blond in awe while Sasuke resisted the urge to smash his head into the counter. _'Ugh, how much weight has my body put on since the dobe took it over?'_ he groaned silently as visions of a notably plumper Sasuke waddled into his mind's eye.

"Anyway, what do you guys want to start?" Ayame asked, whipping out a small notepad and pencil to get ready to take down orders.

"I'll have a bowl of miso ramen," Sasuke requested, taking out his wallet to pay, while Hinata replied, "I'd like one bowl of pork ramen, p-please."

"Okay, gotcha," said Ayame, scrawling down a few notes. "I'll bring you two a jug of water and glasses in a minute and we'll have your bowls ready soon." After this, she returned to the kitchen but not before giving Sasuke a mischievous wink, making him pout at her.

The loss of the chatty waitress made the atmosphere become more tense and Sasuke began to shift uneasily on his seat, while Hinata started playing with her bangles again. Usually, Sasuke preferred silence to any kind of talking but tonight the lack of conversation was making him feel acutely uncomfortable. He wished Hinata would say something but she seemed too nervous to even glance at him, let alone open her lips. Racking his brain for a opener that didn't sound too banal, Sasuke tried to recall what they had chatted about before, which seemed to be mostly ninja techniques and advice on performing them. Actually, all he really knew about the Hyūga heiress were her fighting abilities and jutsus, her affection for Naruto and a little about her troubles with her family. _'I wonder what else she loves and hates, what she does when she can't force herself to train anymore,'_ mused Sasuke, gazing at her curiously. Words finally coming to his lips, he began, "So, Hinata..."

But before he could finish, a furious yell from outside rang through the shop: "COME ON, SHIKAMARU!"

" Ino-chan's here?" Hinata said in surprise, activating her Byakugan instinctively with a swift hand gesture before repeating, "Ino-chan's h-here, with the rest of her squad."

'_Team Ten? Gah, they were there when me and Naruto swapped bodies! Hell, it was Ino's frickin' fault that it even happened!'_ Sasuke thought frantically, listening to the unfolding argument about where the Genin outside wanted to eat out. He hoped desperately that they chose somewhere else, preferably on the opposite side of the village. _'If they come in here, they'll see me and Hinata immediately. And they'll __know__ it's me, not Naruto which is even worse. Crap, Ino is Sakura's gossip buddy so she'll tell Sakura of course and then __Sakura__ will tell Naruto... what am I gonna do?!' _

At that moment, Shikamaru burst through the colourful curtains, grumbling under his breath. Sasuke and Hinata both froze, her cheeks flushing pink while the colour drained from his face. Luckily, Shikamaru was oblivious to their presence as he headed straight to the counter. "Hi Ayame-san. I'm sorry about this but my teammates have sent me here to save seats for them while they fight about where they wanna go outside. Is that okay?" he asked in an faintly exasperated tone.

"We're not too busy tonight so that's fine," Ayame grinned at him, before pointing directly at where 'Naruto' and Hinata were waiting and saying, "There's some free seats down there," guaranteeing her spot on Sasuke's list of 'Really Annoying People I Know'. (Unsurprisingly, nearly everyone Sasuke knows is on it.)

"Thanks," Shikamaru replied before sleepily making his way down towards the couple at the other end of the counter. To Sasuke's dismay, his apparent tiredness did not stop him recognising him and calling him: "Hey Naruto, what's up?"

There were a thousand different answers Sasuke could have given to the question, most of which involved screaming and foul language. Instead, he chose merely to stare blankly at the shinobi next to him and pray that he miraculously didn't notice his companion, who unfortunately had far better manners than him. "Ah, g-good evening Shikamaru-san."

"Oh, hello Hinata," Shikamaru greeted her, his eyes becoming more animated as he suddenly understood what was going on. "You guys came here together, huh?" he questioned them, his sharp eyes studying the situation he had walked into while the two shinobi babbled, "Um, I-I-we, ah..."-"Uh, yeah, sorta..."

'_Man, Naruto's the last person I'd have expected to see going on a date with Hinata,'_ Shikamaru contemplated, the idea of the shy, mousy Hyūga heiress going out with his loud, boisterous friend amusing him greatly. _'Nah, the last guy would be Uchiha,'_ he reconsidered, thinking of the haughty loner who in the academy was just as famous for being a _very_ reluctant chick magnet as he was for being the class prodigy. _'Haha, now __that__ would be weird...wait a minute...'_

For the last half a minute, Sasuke had permitted himself to believe that maybe, _just_ maybe, there was a chance that Shikamaru had forgotten everything that had occurred. Until he did the biggest double-take Sasuke had ever seen and started mimicking a goldfish.

"Hang on... Uchi...what the hell?" spluttered the lazy genius, his eyes bulging out of their sockets as Hinata glanced at him over Sasuke's shoulder in confusion. Giving him the most terrifying glare he could muster (and hoping that it still was half as scary on Naruto's face), Sasuke mouthed 'GET. OUT. NOW' and slid two fingers roughly across his throat. Shikamaru got the message instantly and he raced out of the shop after making a hasty apology to Ayame, explaining to his teammates that "Ichiraku's so busy, it would be too much of a drag to wait in the queue."

Hearing how the noise of their chatter was fading away quickly, Sasuke sighed in relief as Team Ten moved off in search of a different restaurant. _'Shikamaru probably won't bother to tell Ino or Choji about this, he'd find it too troublesome,'_ he reassured himself, before returning his attention to a still very puzzled Hinata. "W-What was that about?" she stuttered, looking for Sasuke to make clear what had happened.

"Search me," Sasuke shrugged, pouring her a glass of water from the tray Ayame had just deposited and resolving to pretend the last few minutes of his life had never taken place. "So, uh," he restarted awkwardly, "what do you do when you're not training or on a mission?"

"Um, eat, sleep..." Hinata said timidly, her mind going blank all of a sudden as she tried to think of something interesting to say.

"No, when you have free time," interrupted Sasuke, slightly bemused by her response. _'Is she being sarcastic?'_

"Y-You mean hobbies? Ah... I like flower pressing, I suppose..." _'Oh no, would he think that I'm boring if I like that?'_

"Flower pressing?" _'Is that like stomping on plants or something? Doesn't sound like something Hinata would do...'_

"Flower pressing is where you take a flower and y-you preserve it in a scrapbook or something similar," Hinata explained patiently. "I love how beautiful flowers are and flower pressing lets me keep their loveliness when they bloom."

Talking about flowers reminded Sasuke of the many potted plants in Naruto's house he had promised to look after for the dobe. He chose not to mention Naruto's hobby to Hinata. "Where do you get the flowers from?"

"There's quite a few gardens in our family c-compound and our gardener lets me have some every spring and summer so I can make a collection for each y-year to remember them. Now I'm older, I'm allowed to help in the garden as well."

"You grow your own?"

"This w-was the first year I could. I chose chrysanthemums and sweet peas and the g-gardener said they turned out very nicely," Hinata admitted, her voice tinged softly with pride.

"Do you like gardening then?" Sasuke asked, resolving to _definitely_ conceal Naruto's hobby from her.

"Yes, I like caring for the flowers and walking around the gardens is relaxing."

"I find walking relaxing too," agreed Sasuke, interested in how although Hinata seemed so different from him, they seemed to share some similarities as well.

"R-Really?"

"Yeah, it...lets you forget yourself for a while." _'Forget all the stress, all the pain, all the hatred...'_

"Ah, I see..."

"Here's your ramen!" Ayame announced, her loud tone making Hinata jump while Sasuke gritted his teeth in irritation. _'She always comes in at the wrong time,'_ he thought crossly, paying her a rough thank you and placing two more requests before they both dived in hungrily.

* * *

While waiting for their third bowls to arrive, it was Hinata's turn to begin the conversation: "I-I'm growing some medicinal herbs now."

"Mm-hm?"

"I'm planning to use them in my healing ointment, to make it work better."

"...ointment?" Sasuke was intrigued by this.

"It's the one I gave y-you after you fought Kiba-kun in the Chūnin exam preliminaries. Um, I let you keep the tub of it afterwards? "

Envy consumed Sasuke for a second before he remembered whose body he was in. "Oh yeah, thanks for that!"

"Y-You're welcome, Naruto-kun!" Hinata beamed at him, unaware of the strain in Sasuke's forced grin.

* * *

"Um, Naruto-kun, did you always want to be Hokage?" Hinata asked softly, stopping the impatient rhythm of Sasuke's drumming fingertips.

"Well, from when I was in the academy I guess," Sasuke replied, wondering himself just when the brash ninja had decided on his life's ambition. It was one of those simple questions he himself had never bothered to ask his teammate. "I want to be Hokage so I can earn the respect of everyone in the village," he continued, reciting Naruto's familiar mantra.

"That's really c-cool," Hinata smiled, giving him another admiring look while Sasuke considered that in comparison, wanting to kill his older brother for vengeance would be a much less noble aspiration in her eyes. _'He's carved out my path for me...being the heiress to her clan means Hinata must be the same...'_

"I suppose you've had your path set out for you from day one," Sasuke mused aloud, causing Hinata's lips to curve downwards in a small frown. "Yes... it's been a very difficult path to follow," she said solemnly, "but I-I hope that I shall be able to meet my father's expectations one day."

"...we'll both work hard, we'll both succeed," Sasuke assured her in a quiet, firm voice, his eyes sharing the same steely determination that was in Hinata's lavender ones.

* * *

The rest of the evening passed much faster than either of the two heirs had anticipated, more to Hinata's disappointment than Sasuke's who had been astonished by the size of her appetite (she had asked for nearly as many bowls as _Naruto_ would usually eat). As she finished off her ninth bowl, Sasuke stared at her in disbelief (he had only managed eight himself and the last two were to prevent Ayame from worrying about 'Naruto''s health). "Are you finished?" he asked hesitantly, wondering where on earth all the food was going to in the kunoichi next to him.

"I am," Hinata nodded, and Sasuke wiped the beads of sweat off his forehead- he didn't actually have enough money to make another order. _'Geez, that was close.'_

After paying their respects to Teuchi and Ayame, the two Genin finally left Ichiraku Ramen and started the long walk back to the Hyūga compound. When they passed the Konoha hospital, Hinata began bashfully, "I-I used to want to be a medic nin when I was younger."

This confession did not surprise Sasuke; healing and looking after patients would appeal to someone kind and caring like Hinata in his opinion. "Your Byakugan would be a great advantage in carrying out surgery," he replied.

"It would be," agreed Hinata, "b-but my father would never approve of it- he once said it was not a job for the main family."

"You could still learn a few jutsus like the Chakra scalpel to help out your team when they've been injured," Sasuke suggested, remembering how Sakura had started learning medical techniques to improve her range of ninjutsu. "Being both able to attack and heal would make you a strong ally."

"That's a great idea, N-Naruto-kun," Hinata said excitedly, her face shining with enthusiasm "Should I go to speak to Sakura-chan about it? I think she'll b-be impressed with your idea. "

"Uh, sure, don't mention I thought of it though," warned Sasuke, the implications of the heiress' words sending a chill through his stomach.

"W-Why not tell h-her it was you?" Hinata stuttered in confusion, a little startled at the abrupt change in her companion's tone.

"Er, well..." Sasuke faltered, silently cursing the Hyūga clan for locating their compound so far away from Ichiraku.

* * *

Finally, after what had seemed like an eternity (in reality fifteen minutes), the massive walls of the Hyūga clan's complex came into view. As the huge stone archway towered before them, Hinata turned to Sasuke and told him, "Um, I can make my own way home from here and N-Neji-niisan will be fine with that, so you don't need to trouble yourself any further."

"It wasn't any trouble," Sasuke replied honestly, having enjoyed the peaceful walk despite the awkward question Hinata had posed earlier.

The breeze tangled with Hinata's curls, the indigo strands brushing over her pink cheeks as she held Sasuke's gaze. "Th-Thank you for inviting m-me out," she stammered, her fingers reaching for her bangles before she resisted the urge to start fiddling and clasped them instead. "I r-really enjoyed the meal and thank you for paying the bill as well."

"No problem, just returning a favour," said Sasuke calmly, feeling an odd mixture of nervousness and contentment simultaneously. Despite having to deal with her overprotective cousin, the irritating waitress, Shikamaru's surprise appearance, the difficulties of holding a normal conversation with very little experience of it _and_ pretending to be Naruto, Sasuke decided it hadn't been a bad evening. Maybe even quite... pleasant.

The rustling of the trees surrounding them filled the silence between the couple as lilac eyes stared into sky blue orbs. Hinata moved shyly towards Sasuke who stood there glued to the spot, his heart starting to thump faster and faster. "I-I'll see you soon, N-Naruto-kun," she murmured softly, her face now burning a bright scarlet.

"Yeah," Sasuke mumbled. Even though the winds were icy, he was boiling hot and sweat was pouring out of his palms.

The Hyūga heiress took another quivering step towards him and raised her arms slightly. Sasuke recognised the gesture immediately, the same one so many girls had performed just before they tried to crush him to death. Yet, instead of leaping away as he always did, his arms impulsively mimicked hers, as if they were being controlled by a rogue puppeteer.

'_This is crazy,'_ a lone voice of reason commented in his head.

'_I know,'_ Sasuke replied, as his left foot took a large step towards Hinata, his right foot hit a slab... and as he grabbed Hinata to stop his fall, his lips crashed into hers.

They both froze in shock as blood rushed to Sasuke's head, making him feel dizzy. As his brain began to slowly process what was happening, Hinata suddenly responded by gently caressing his lips with hers. His eyes closed instinctively and for a few heartbeats, his world was just him and Hinata.

Pulling away from her felt like surfacing from deep underwater. Taking a large gulp of air, Sasuke opened his eyes to gaze into Hinata's, as she softly uttered, "Naruto-kun..."

Crashing back down to earth at her words, realisation dawned on him like a bolt of lightning. As his mind began to frantically race into overdrive, Sasuke jumped a few feet over from the Hyūga heiress (leading to her emitting a startled yelp). "Bye Hinata!" he yelled as he dashed away with his back to her, trying to ignore her confused cry of "N-Naruto-kun?!" and the growing panic in the pit of his stomach.

'_I'm screwed, I'm screwed, I'm screwed,'_ Sasuke chanted under his breath as he tore down the dark streets, scaring countless cats and sending a few unlucky bystanders flying. The sight of Naruto's apartment made him feel even sicker and after he burst through the front door, he collapsed in a sweaty heap. As he lay on the cool wooden floor, limbs splayed everywhere, Sasuke could only think of two things: not only had he just kissed Hinata Hyūga in Naruto's body, he had also enjoyed it much more than he should have done.

* * *

For the next few chapters (which will be shorter than this monster one), I promise more characters, more ninja action and (hopefully) more plot advancement. As always, if you have any feedback, questions or advice I'd love to hear it :)


	8. Chapter 8

Author's note: Thank you very much to all the readers and all those who reviewed, faved and/or put this story on alert :) Finally managed to get around to finishing this chapter- it's a bit rushed but I hope it's turned out okay.

Switched Chapter 8

The neon green numbers glowed faintly in the darkness of the bedroom, reading _01:54_, the two pinpricks flickering every second. A pair of weary eyes glanced at the digits before their lids drooped over them again and a small sigh rang through the silence. The cogs in Sasuke's brain had remained whirring long after he had first sank underneath the duvet covers, and his body was just as restless and uncomfortable as his mind was. For the last few hours, he had been mulling over the evening he had just experienced, especially the last ten minutes, and all of Sasuke's ninja analysing skills kept leading him back to the same basic conclusions.

Number one: regardless of what Sasuke considered it as, Hinata Hyūga believed that she had just been on a date with Naruto Uzumaki or was counting it as a date anyway if she wasn't sure.

Number two: Hinata Hyūga believed she had just kissed her long time crush, and may or may not have realised 'Naruto-kun' had initiated it by accident.

Number three: As a result of his... _reaction_ when she had responded to the contact, there was a good chance that Hinata Hyūga believed that her long time crush also returned her feelings. His own scrutiny of why exactly he had reacted like _that_ was producing some alarming answers so Sasuke had pushed the issue to the back of his mind.

Number four: The real Naruto Uzumaki (currently residing in Sasuke's body) was blissfully ignorant of everything that had happened between Sasuke and Hinata over the past ten days.

'_At least for now,'_ Sasuke recognised. _'Once we change back, he'll learn about everything that's happened and have to face all of the consequences of my actions because I was in __his__ body. Ugh, when he's found out what I've done, he's gonna be so angry with me- and so he should be. I've been messing around with the girl who likes him (though he doesn't know she does) and if I was pissed off about him just hugging Sakura, Naruto will be absolutely furious when he finds out I've kissed Hinata.'_

Feeling a strong pang of guilt, Sasuke took out his rage at himself on his pillow, smashing it with his fists. _'I'm such a lousy excuse for a best mate,'_ he silently chastised himself. _'I'm the one who's caused all the mayhem while the only 'crime' Naruto's committed was not acting like me when he met Neji. And I'm guilty of the exact same thing- not only with Neji but with Hinata too so I'm the real troublemaker. Oh Naruto, I'm always calling you stupid and careless, but it's really me who's the reckless idiot out of the two of us,'_ he lamented, pummelling the pillow savagely to let out his frustration.

There was only one solution Sasuke could invent for the chaos he had created: talk with Hinata and explain the whole situation to her, telling her about the switch and how it was Sasuke, not Naruto, who she had seeing for the past week. As soon as he decided to meet up with the Hyūga heiress first thing when he left the house, a small voice piped up, _'Good plan but there's one snag- what if Hinata thinks you're making up some rubbish excuse for last night so 'Naruto' can pretend it never happened? It __could__ be a crazy idea he would come up with- "My weirdo teammate who just happens to be stuck in my body right now snogged you, not me, so it's not my fault."'_

'_That's true,'_ Sasuke agreed. The last thing he needed was for Hinata to write off the truth as a lie. _'In that case, I'll tell her everything as soon as I've returned to my real self but before Naruto sees her. She would know Naruto wouldn't send me to do his dirty work for him so I doubt she'll reject my story. And it would be cruel to keep her in the dark any longer. The only problem is that I'll have to avoid her until the body swap is over but that shouldn't be too hard and it means Naruto will never know,'_ he thought, the last point making him feel slightly calmer than before.

'_That's just the first part though- there's the aftermath to think about as well, you know. Hinata will probably be quite upset when she discovers the reason why Naruto's been talking to her so much is because he isn't actually Naruto,'_ the little voice continued darkly. The ominous words caused Sasuke's imagination to produce a frightening image of Hinata crying her eyes out, but he resolved, _'If she's really hurt and distressed, I'll make it up to her, somehow...'_

The effects of excessive worrying at an ungodly hour began to kick in, and the room became increasingly blurry as Sasuke's sleepy brain contemplated the other issues he had been purposefully ignoring when he was more awake. "I'll have to make sure she knows that kiss was definitely an accident, but she probably figured that out 'cos she's smart," he mumbled dazedly to himself, "yeah, gotta make that clear to her."

'_You responded to it very eagerly though, how're you gonna explain __that__?'_ the small voice remarked in a mocking tone.

"Um...I'll...deal with it...when the time comes..." babbled Sasuke, as he finally gave in to the fatigue and sank into oblivion.

* * *

To Sasuke's dismay, evading the Hyūga heiress the next day turned out to be much more difficult than he thought it would be, as she seemed to be everywhere he was and fuelled by a determination to talk about what had happened last night. Snubbing amorous girls was usually as easy as breathing for the Uchiha but every time he turned his back to Hinata's anxious face, Sasuke felt a little twinge of guilt in his stomach for ignoring her. This uneasiness about avoiding her was not aided by how, deep down, Sasuke didn't want to do it at all and was instead keen to get the inevitable talk over with as soon as possible. Even worse than these feelings were the very disturbing urges he was getting every time he saw Hinata to walk over to her and kiss her _again_. _'Ugh, I hope I'm not turning into a pervert like Naruto or Kakashi! Training with a porn addict and Mr Sexy No Jutsu himself must be a subconscious influence or something...' _

The rest of the day passed by much more sluggishly than Sasuke would have preferred, but Friday morning arrived at last. Deftly throwing his teammate's worn kunai at the disintegrating board, the perfect bullseyes he scored with every hit did not help to alleviate Sasuke's grim mood as he thought about how he faced another day of dodging the Hyūga heiress. The Uchiha sighed as he dragged the rusting metal out from the rotting wood, noting that a shiny new set of kunai would be a good, practical gift for Naruto's upcoming birthday and one that would definitely be appreciated. As he deliberated on how much money would be appropriate to spend, a deafening yell caused him to jump out of his skin: "OI, SASUKE-JERK!"

Sasuke whipped around swiftly to growl at the incoming shinobi, "For goodness' sake dobe, keep your voice down if you're gonna use the wrong name!"

"Yeah yeah, whatever," Naruto dismissed him, sticking his tongue out at Sasuke who retorted by rolling his eyes at him. "Anyway, I've got some great news for you," he continued excitedly, his jovial spirits having not been dampened by his teammate's scolding. "Kakashi-sensei just told me that Inoichi-san has managed to find the counter jutsu, dattebayo!"

"Finally!" Sasuke cried, sharing in Naruto's relief and swapping a triumphant smirk with the cheerful grin that looked so peculiar on his usually stoic features. "So, when is he planning to use it? This afternoon, this evening?"

"Uh no, we're seeing Inoichi-san on Sunday morning," Naruto replied, his smile faltering slightly as Sasuke gave him a faintly exasperated look. "He's super busy at the moment because he's having to take on lots of extra paperwork, Kakashi-sensei said. Something to do with Konoha sending lots of Jōnin and Chūnin to aid a small ally in defending a surprise ambush, I think."

"Right," murmured Sasuke, his initial joy at the news of the switch being remedied vanishing at the prospect of having to shun Hinata for the next three days when all he wanted was to sort the whole mess out. His sullenness did not go unnoticed by the hot blooded Genin in front of him who was staring at him puzzled.

"Man, I was expecting you to be really pleased that we're changing back, not to get all moody like this," commented Naruto, raising his eyebrows to form a puzzled expression. "I guess it's gonna be a pain having to shift back after all- the counter jutsu won't be pleasant if it's anything like that Mind Destruction Jutsu. It's a shame too since I've mastered all my 'Sasuke-jerk' techniques."

"Sasuke-jerk techniques? You've learned all my jutsus?" Sasuke asked, staring at Naruto in amazement. _'I know he perfected the Fireball jutsu on Monday but the rest as well?'_

"No, I've mastered my impressions of you!" Naruto corrected him as Sasuke slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand. _'I should have known.'_

"Wanna see them then? C'mon Sasuke, you know you want to," teased Naruto as his friend's left eyebrow began to twitch. "Ooh, I can do that one!" he said eagerly, instantly copying the exaggerated brow movement that the Uchiha performed when confronted with absurdity.

Sasuke pouted. "Is that actually what I look like when I do that?" _'It looks kinda peculiar...'_

"Yep, checked it in the mirror."

"...hn." _'Maybe I should go see a doctor about that.'_

"Okay, next up- Uchiha Smiling techniques. Number one: the 'I am about to kick your ass' smirk!" announced Naruto, demonstrating one of Sasuke's trademark twisted smiles. "Number two: the 'I have succeeded in the battle/mission' smirk! And the grand finale: the 'I think I'm so much better than you' smirk!" he continued, changing the curvature of his lips a tiny amount with each declaration.

"Don't make fun of me," complained Sasuke half-heartedly, trying to resist the urge to laugh at himself to save his pride.

"Hehe, this is the last one then," Naruto told the bemused blond Genin, before shaking his long ebony hair around his handsome face and donning a flirtatious expression.

"I do _not_ do THAT!" snarled Sasuke, his face reddening.

"Hahahaha, I know, but you totally should!"

At this, Sasuke glowered angrily at him, only for Naruto to activate the Sharingan and return the glare, cerulean eyes locked with crimson ones. As he tried to argue back, his teammate mimicked his every word as soon as it had left his lips.

"Stop copying me. It isn't funny anymore, it's irritating. You're just acting like the loser that you are. Fine, if you're going to be so immature and childish then I'm won't speak to you. I mean it, moron. I'm gonna walk away and start practising my- QUIT IT ALREADY!"

Naruto broke out into raucous laughter when Sasuke shouted at him. "You get wound up so easily! Chill out," he chuckled, when the prodigy clenched his fists and scowled at him. "I have developed a specific new technique for you, a real jutsu, if you're interested," he revealed.

This information wiped the frown off Sasuke's face and replaced it with a look of intrigue. "You have? What is it?" he asked, impatient to see it.

"It's the Uchiha Style: Sexy No Jutsu! Tried and tested on the Ero-Sennin and closet pervert Ebisu-sensei with a 100% success rate!"

Sasuke's jaw dropped. "You have GOT to be kidding me."

"Nope! Oh man, you should have seen the look on Ero-Sennin's face, it was absolutely _hilarious_. He was like 'I cannot believe he just did that!'"

"Neither can I."

"Shall I perform it, so you do?"

"Hell no! Ew, I don't want to see that!"

Naruto's chortling quickly turned into a nervous "hehe...aah" as the lines on his companion's forehead deepened. "Come on Sasuke, you must have done mad stuff in my body too," he said, hoping his teammate's bad mood would vanish rapidly.

Sasuke blanched. "No way, not at all," he lied, his voice becoming higher pitched as Naruto squinted at him suspiciously. At that moment, he caught a glimpse of a cherry-haired kunoichi and called out to her: "Hi Sakura!"

"Good morning Sakura-chan!" Naruto noisily greeted her and raced off to see his crush, waving wildly. Sasuke exhaled deeply in relief, grateful for the timely entrance of his other teammate that probably had spared him some awkward questions. As he clutched the throwing knives and prepared his next throw, a cloud of smoke erupted in front, causing Sasuke to yelp and leap back a few feet.

"Don't worry, it's just me," Kakashi grinned as Sasuke dropped his defensive position and grimaced at him. "Hm, still as grumpy as yesterday, I see. A sunnier disposition wouldn't kill you, Sasuke. Did Naruto bother to tell you that Inoichi's found the counter jutsu for Ino's technique?"

"Yeah, told me as soon as he came," Sasuke replied, his stern expression showing no signs of disappearing.

"Oh, I'd have thought that would have cheered you up but obviously it hasn't," Kakashi remarked bluntly, examining his student's features carefully. "Sasuke, has something happened you would like to tell me about? Your mind appears to be completely elsewhere when I've talked to you lately and I doubt it's just down to it being in a different body," he continued in a more gentle tone.

"Um, I...er..." Sasuke hesitated, debating whether or not to confess to his sensei. Remembering how Kakashi had faithfully kept his promise to not tell Naruto about his Cursed Seal, he began, "You might not believe this but I've-"

"YOU'RE LATE KAKASHI-SENSEI!" Naruto and Sakura roared in perfect unison as Kakashi sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry you two, I must have spent too long helping that little old lady crossing the road," he apologised, leading to irritated murmurings of "Rubbish excuse, as always."

"Sensei, I've just been told by Tsunade-sama to summon our team to the Hokage Mansion, we've been assigned a higher-level C rank mission," Sakura informed them, to which Sasuke responded in confusion, "I thought we were only supposed to be assigned D rank missions due to the switch?"

"We _were_ but due to multiple Jōnin and Chūnin squads being sent to the Hidden Waterfall village to help defend them from an unexpected attack she's having to get us to cover, like Inoichi-san. It's just a brief overnight mission, she says, delivering a back-up letter to the Daimyō of the Land of Fire notifying him of our involvement in the battle in case the carrier pigeon doesn't make it. It's not a message which would be of vital interest to other ninja so there's very little risk of an attack," explained Sakura.

"Sounds fine to me, and even if we do get into a fight, I can perform the Fireball jutsu now," declared Naruto confidently while Sasuke nodded in agreement.

"Oh, I forgot one last detail," she said hurriedly, "just to make sure we'll be completely okay, Tsunade-sama will be sending another Genin team alongside us so it's a joint-squad assignment."

"Cool! So which team will it be?" asked Naruto.

"Team 8."

Sasuke's heart plummeted.

"Well, you guys had better get a move on- you don't want to annoy Hokage-sama by turning up late when she's already stressed enough," Kakashi said, ignoring Sakura muttering, "Hypocrite." As he waved the shinobi off and began walking away, Sasuke watched him, feeling slightly disappointed that he had missed the chance to possibly get some advice from his sensei. Then he saw Kakashi take out an Icha Icha book and decided that he didn't want to know what kind of advice he would have gotten anyway.

* * *

"…and then Akamaru bit him right on the ass! Man, you should have heard him scream. I was pissing myself laughing," Kiba cackled, shaking his head at the memory as Akamaru barked noisily in agreement.

Sasuke forced himself to laugh, his jaw starting to ache from all the strained grins he had been making while walking back to the inn with Kiba. It was easy to see why him and Naruto got on well- they were both loud and boisterous with the same penchant for mischief, but Sasuke was starting to find the Inuzuka's incessant chatter and juvenile sense of humour grating.

As Kiba babbled on, out of the corner of his eye Sasuke caught a few shady looking figures staring intently at them as they walked down the street. Quickly memorising their appearances, he made a mental note to keep on his guard- shinobi stood out in small towns like these and were consequently more vulnerable to being targeted.

"Anyway, this mission's been far easier," Kiba continued, and Sasuke gave him an honest nod. There had been no trouble when passing the scroll to the Daimyō's guards and Naruto had managed to keep surprisingly in character except for a triumphant "Yahoo, finally made it!" when they had reached the Daimyō's residence, earning an equally out of character death glare from his annoyed teammate.

Unfortunately, the success of the mission had done nothing to alleviate the awkward tension in the atmosphere between the Uchiha and the Hyūga heiress, which had been becoming increasingly conspicuous as the day progressed. Sasuke was anxiously hoping that none of the other Genin had noticed it; they didn't appear to have done so but Shino had given 'Naruto' some rather intense looks that had not calmed his paranoia one bit. Hinata herself had become gradually more miserable looking over the course of the day, and the pangs of guilt Sasuke had been experiencing over ignoring her were getting more and more frequent. Worst of all was the terrifying idea that had come to him during lunch break: that in her desperation Hinata might choose to confess what had happened to Sakura and ask for advice. _That_ would completely blow his plans of the rest of Team Seven remaining oblivious to the situation and unleash total chaos…

"Hey, Naruto? You okay? You look really serious," Kiba asked suddenly, interrupting Sasuke's train of thought. "Oh, I'm fine, I'm just really hungry," he replied hastily, his stomach giving a convenient growl to back him up.

"Well, looks like we're just on time," Kiba winked as they finally arrived at the inn to be greeted by Sakura and Hinata waving them into the kitchen. Sasuke briefly caught the heiress' eye, causing her to redden and shrink into her oversized jacket as he diverted his gaze sharply away. _'Well, this is going to be an interesting meal…'_

* * *

Dinner passed by at the slow, excruciating rate Sasuke expected, and he left the table as fast as he could, wanting to escape from everyone for a while. Watching the wind create gentle ripples in the lake in front of him from the balcony, Sasuke instinctively reached to brush his hair out of his eyes only to realise there was no need with Naruto's blond spikes._ 'Damn it,'_ he thought irritably, _'I just want a break from everything, to forget everything for a moment yet stupid little things like that mean I can't.'_

As all the events of the past few days came back to him, Sasuke sank onto the ledge, buried his chin in his folded arms and groaned softly. _'I should have just stayed in instead of going out like I was going to,'_ he sighed. _'No, I shouldn't have asked Hinata to train me at all, and then the stupid 'date' wouldn't have even happened.'_ But as he brooded on it, more pleasant memories of seeing Hinata perform the Shadow Shuriken jutsu correctly for the first time and eating bento together with her surfaced. _'Maybe…training with her wasn't such a bad idea after all,'_ Sasuke reflected, remembering the warm feeling in his stomach he got when Hinata complimented him on improving his technique. _'If only I wasn't in Naruto's body…'_

The shuddering sound of the door closing behind him broke Sasuke of his trance, and he spun round to come face to face with the pale lavender eyes he had been imagining about. At the eye contact, Hinata blushed a fierce shade of crimson and stammered out, "N-Naruto, I w-want to talk with you."

"Err…" Sasuke hesitated, panic swiftly settling in as his eyes darted rapidly around the balcony for an exit only to realise the Hyūga heiress had blocked off the only door (a strategically clever move, he conceded). Glancing behind him, Sasuke evaluated the drop as being low-risk and a jump down feasible but decided that move would be going too far and would certainly upset Hinata. Instead, he stayed frozen to the spot, hands shoved deep in to his pockets and gaze glued to the floor.

"Uh, it's about W-Wednesday," Hinata mumbled nervously, trying her best to be undeterred by how her crush was pretending she wasn't there. "Y-You know, about what happened."

Trying his best not to remember the touch of her lips on his, Sasuke continued to stare at the ground, feeling the heat creeping up the sides of his neck.

"W-Well, it's just I-I…ah…what y-you…um…" she stuttered, fiddling with her fingers as Sasuke kept silent, the only thing he knew how to do in this kind of situation. Hinata's eyes began to burn and a flame of anger rose up within her as she clenched her fists in frustration. As Sasuke took a small step away from her, all the emotions she had been trying suppress finally broke free and she cried "I'm sick of you ignoring me! It's not f-fair how you asked me out and we had such a nice evening and then y-you go and act like you don't even know me! Do you really care about m-me at all or are you just playing with m-my feelings and using me?!"

"I-I-I'm…" Sasuke stumbled over his words, having been stunned by Hinata's sudden outburst and being forced to confront the one question he had been fighting against answering for the past week. _'There's no way I can keep this sham up any longer,' _he realised. _'I've got to tell her the truth.'_

"Hinata… the truth is I'm not exactly who you think I am," began Sasuke slowly, gazing into the heiress' teary eyes.

"I realised that," Hinata replied darkly, in a brief flash of fury.

"No, I'm _really_ not who you think I am," Sasuke continued, his heart beginning to thump frantically in his chest.

Hinata gaped at him, her features full of confusion. "W-What on earth do y-you mean by-"

A sudden eruption of screaming and shouting from behind them cut off her words. The two Genin exchanged looks of alarm, forgetting their conversation entirely and raced back inside to see Kiba bursting through another door, panting heavily. "We've been ambushed," he said breathlessly, "They want the scroll."

* * *

And this story has started to reach its climax! (My plan is for three more chapters and then this fanfic will be finished). I won't be able to update for the next couple of months due to work so I apologise for that in advance. As always, if you have any feedback, questions or advice I'd love to hear it :)


	9. Chapter 9

Author's note: Thank you very much to everyone reading this and everyone who reviewed, favourited and/or is following :D This chapter is quite a lot shorter than the last two and hasn't got much SasuHina action but I hope you enjoy it.

Switched Chapter 9

"We've been ambushed?!" Sasuke exclaimed as Hinata stared at Kiba in horror. "Who by?"

"Naruto, do you remember those creepy men looking at us on the way back? Turns out they're from a local criminal gang who are known for stealing information off shinobi and selling it to their enemies for big money," Kiba explained. "They must have figured out we were messengers and decided to steal the scroll from us."

"B-b-but we've already delivered the scroll to the Daimyō. Haven't you told them that?" asked Hinata, her voice becoming more frantic and high-pitched.

"Sakura tried to tell them that but they weren't listening at all- they probably think we're lying," growled Kiba. "Right now, Sakura and Sasuke are trying to hold the first three off and Shino's helping the rest of the hotel evacuate. We think they're around Genin, maybe even Chūnin standard."

At this, Sasuke cursed under his breath, clenching his fists. Hinata let out a fearful wail and Akamaru joined her with his howls of distress, while Kiba began desperately trying to calm the pup down. Realising that the shock of the ambush was causing his teammates to unravel, Sasuke took a deep breath and started to formulate a plan. "Hinata, use your Byakugan to scout the hotel. Find out how many enemies there are and where they are," he commanded.

"R-right!" Hinata nodded, throwing her hands together to perform the necessary sign. As the veins on her face bulged, her focused look of determination wavered as she said, "S-Sasuke-san and Sakura-chan are fighting three people in the foyer of the hotel, and two other men are outside who are moving t-towards them. There are four people on the first floor who are searching the rooms there a-and there are three men on this floor moving around. Shino-kun is directing people out of the hotel through the back of the kitchen."

After a moment's silence filled with tension, Sasuke spoke first. "Hinata, since you will have the advantage in knowing their movements, take out the criminals on this floor quickly and then move to the first floor to do the same. I will go to the first floor to deal with the gang members there and after we have defeated the men on that floor we will direct the hostages to where Shino is. Kiba and Akamaru, go straight to the foyer to support Sasuke and Sakura. If you come under attack before you get there, just run. Hinata and I will join you as soon as we have dealt with the upper floors."

"Sounds good to me," replied Kiba, Akamaru barking in agreement. Hinata gave a hesitant nod before quietly asking, "Do you think there's any ch-chance of trying to negotiate with them again? There are more of us now, they may listen."

"Sorry Hinata, but there's no way those guys are gonna do that. They just told Sakura to shut up and hand over the scroll the first time she told them we didn't have it and ignored everything we said after that," Kiba answered.

"We'll just have to take them out then," declared Sasuke as he began running towards the stairs, Kiba and Akamaru following closely behind as Hinata vanished into the next corridor. _'At least, I hope we can.'_

* * *

Sasuke's heart pounded in his chest as he crawled carefully across the ceiling, using his chakra control to cling on. The gang member who had just passed under him thankfully did not notice him at all and as he turned the corner, Sasuke deftly leapt behind him and smashed his foot into his back. The crook stumbled, limbs flailing aimlessly as he twisted his head to see his attacker but the Uchiha neatly flipped over him, creating two Shadow Clones as he did so. "Th-three of them?" spluttered the man before six fists pummeled him into unconsciousness.

"One down, three to go," Sasuke muttered to himself, making a hand sign to dispel the clones before beginning to creep away from the corridor he had found the first person in. Having met no one else while searching the corridors, Sasuke had assumed that the rest of the rogue shinobi on the first floor had hidden themselves within the rooms they had been searching, and supposed their plan was to ambush the Genin once they had passed by their doors. As another room approached, the Uchiha pressed his back to the wall adjacent to it and slowly gave the door a small push. When he heard no noise other than the creak of the hinges, he formed a single clone which then peered into the room to carefully inspect it. Finding it to be empty, the clone gave a quick thumbs down before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

At this, Sasuke sighed and turned to continue down the corridor. "If I counted correctly, there were fifteen rooms on this floor which leaves potentially another fourteen to be checked. Ugh, finding these losers is gonna take longer than I expected," he moaned quietly.

"Or maybe it won't," a voice from behind him cackled. Sasuke swung round to see a heavily muscled woman burst out from the room he had just checked and before he could even move to defend himself, she slammed him into the wall and pinned him against it.

'_Damn it, how did that clone not see her? If I had Sharingan, I would have spotted her for sure,'_ thought Sasuke as he struggled against the criminal's iron grip on him. The frequent kicks he was delivering to her hefty legs appeared not to faze her in the slightest as she called out to the giant man walking towards her: "Oi, Kazuichi, I've caught one of them Konoha brats."

Despite how he towered over his teammate, Kazuichi was of a far weaker build than the kunoichi, so lanky as to be almost fragile-looking. Instead of lending strength to her hold, he unsheathed a long katana and held it to Sasuke's neck, pressing it in so a few droplets of blood trickled from it. The Uchiha ceased his resistance immediately, as sweat began to pour from his brow.

"Good job, Oumi-chan," the man said softly, his voice as weak as his figure. "So Konoha-_kun_, would you like to explain to us where this scroll you are delivering is?" he asked, leaning in.

"We've delivered it to the Daimyō already this evening, so go and ask him instead," hissed Sasuke, before yelping as Oumi smacked him into the wall again. "You ask 'em too nicely, idiot," she spat at her partner who withdrew his sword to Sasuke's relief. "Right kid, you better open your mouth and tell us where this scroll is or I'll start breakin' every bone in your little body, got it?" she snarled, digging her sharp fingernails into his arms.

"I already told-" Sasuke started but was cut off almost instantly by Oumi screaming as a huge shuriken sliced into her right arm. Kazuichi gave a cry of horror and raced towards her, only to be caught in the stomach by another shuriken that had been hidden in the shadow of the first. Recognising the technique at once, Sasuke finally broke free of Oumi's grasp and cried "Hinata, thanks!"

"No problem, Naruto-kun!" Hinata shouted breathlessly as she ran towards him. "I-I've defeated the three men on the above floor," she continued as Sasuke delivered a swift blow to the back of Oumi's head to knock her out.

"KYO-KUN!" shrieked Kazuichi as he watched Oumi topple to the ground, blood leaking from her injured arm. A crazed roar erupted from behind Hinata as a man with flame-coloured hair swung open a door and charged towards her.

"You take him, and I'll deal with this one!" Sasuke yelled, as Hinata immediately assumed her Gentle Fist fighting stance and spun round to face the wild-looking man. As Kazuichi unsheathed his katana for the second time and swung it at his neck, Sasuke ducked underneath the blade and narrowly missed it. The swordsman saw him dodge it, and brought his katana down to slice into Sasuke's head, only for the Uchiha to use the Substitution jutsu to avoid the strike again. _'Damn, that was close.'_

As he dived behind Kazuichi, Sasuke yelled "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" and produced a dozen clones in front of the gang member's eyes, surrounding him entirely. Distracted by the entourage that had suddenly appeared before him, Kazuichi failed to notice the real shinobi slip behind him and before he could raise his sword, Sasuke delivered an upper kick that launched him into the air. The katana crashed to the ground and the Uchiha leapt up behind him, mirroring the criminal's position in the air before swinging on top of him and delivering a series of powerful blows to smash him to the ground. _'Lions Barrage!'_ Sasuke roared internally as he performed the final assault of throwing Kazuichi to the ground and driving his foot into his stomach.

Turning away from the defeated ninja, Sasuke was relieved to see Hinata watching him closely with no major injuries, although he noticed she was covered in scratches and bruises now he looked more closely. The final gang member from the first floor lay unconscious behind her, his skin covered in the tell-tale marks of the Gentle Fist technique. The Hyūga heiress quickly deactivated her Byakugan and came towards him.

"You okay?" Sasuke asked, and satisfied with Hinata's quiet "Yes", continued, "Let's go to the ground floor." Running in front of her, his mind noted that the look in Hinata's eyes when she had seen him finish off Kazuichi had been a strange, scrutinising one. Sasuke dismissed the issue for later analysis; it was irrelevant to their current situation.

As she raced to keep up, Hinata's brain was repeating the images of what she had just seen. Having easily knocked out Kyo, she had seen the conclusion of Naruto's fight with Kazuichi and his method seemed unusual to her. _'I'm sure that jutsu Naruto-kun just used is the same one Sasuke-san used to defeat that chakra draining Genin from the Chūnin exam preliminaries. Maybe Sasuke-san taught Naruto-kun it at a later date, like he taught me about the Shadow Shuriken technique? But then, Naruto-kun made his own variation on the jutsu called the Uzumaki barrage which he used to beat Kiba-kun during their preliminary match, and it was equal in power. So why would he have wanted to learn Sasuke-san's as well? Something isn't quite right here…'_

As she puzzled over the issue, lines from her heated conversation with Naruto before Kiba had interrupted them flashed into her head. _'Hinata… the truth is I'm not exactly who you think I am… No, I'm __**really**__ not who you think I am…'_

Hinata's eyes widened as she stared into the orange jacket in front of her. _'N…no way…Sasuke-san?'_

* * *

Clattering down the stairs onto the ground floor, the two Genin were greeted by Shino surrounded by his swarm of insects. "What have I been doing? I have just finished evacuating the remaining guests and employees out of the hotel, so shinobi should be the only people remaining in here," he informed them. "What has happened upstairs?"

"Hinata and I have taken out all the gang members on the upper floors, and we're going to support the other three," replied Sasuke, pointing in the direction of Naruto, Sakura and Kiba.

"I'll join you then," said Shino and as Hinata activated her Byakugan again, he turned to open the door to the foyer.

"No, Shino-kun!" screamed Hinata but before either of them could do anything, Shino swung open the door only to be knocked unconscious by an immediate hit to his skull; his bugs had been unable to react in time. His assailant's smirk swiftly turned into shock as a deluge of clones crashed into him and blasted him out of the way with their fists. After moving Shino's body carefully out of the way, the two Genin burst into the foyer.

Sasuke's eyes rapidly darted around as he took in what was going around him. Sakura was kneeling in a corner of the room with glowing green hands as she tended to Akamaru who was unconscious and sporting a very nasty wound. An exhausted Kiba was flailing in front of her, only focused on defending his injured pup and its healer from the one gang member trying to attack them. In the middle of the floor, with two gang members lying beside him, Naruto was attempting to fight the two remaining criminals simultaneously but Sasuke could see at once that he had depleted most of his chakra reserves. The implications of this sent a chill down the Uchiha's spine and he yelled, "SASUKE! Stop fighting and let me and Hinata take over!"

"No, I can't give up yet! I'm not gonna run away when everyone needs my help!" Naruto shouted back as he only just avoided the combined streams of fire that had erupted from the mouths of the short haired woman on his right and the dark haired man on his left. Sasuke's heart gave an unpleasant lurch as he realised that the criminals here seemed to be more competent in battle than the others they had previously faced.

Kiba sank to his knees after being bombarded with a series of kunai. "I can't go on… I'm sorry…" he croaked, before collapsing into oblivion.

Hinata and Sasuke exchanged a brief glance before moving towards the enemy, only to be met with a cry of "Summoning: One Hundred Shuriken Jutsu!" and a barrage of shuriken from his large scroll. Thinking fast, Sasuke created a wall of clones that absorbed most of the metal stars and Hinata snuck through, shrouded by the ensuing smokescreen as the clones exploded into dust. She managed to land hits on enough pressure points to disable the gang member's left arm but before she could retreat back, he grabbed her in a stranglehold with his remaining one.

"Hinata!" As Sasuke prepared to kick the preoccupied crook in the stomach to take him out, Naruto ran towards them, making a series of hand signs that were all too familiar to both him and the Uchiha. "NARUTO, DON'T DO IT!" he cried but it was too late. Naruto had already formed three copies of his original body and they charged straight into the criminal, driving him into the wall and Hinata out of his grip.

Hinata fell to the floor gasping for breath as she heard the sound of the clones being dispelled. Then an awful scream pierced through her ears and she twisted her neck to see the crimson eyed Genin clutching his neck as a pattern of flames began to burn all over his skin. "What's happening to Sas-Naru…?" Her voice trailed off in her confusion.

Sasuke stared at his teammate in horror as he twisted his neck to look Sasuke in the eye, his hand not leaving the cursed seal. "Sasuke," he said, his voice strangled with the intense pain, "what the hell is your body doing?"

Sasuke opened his mouth to answer but no words came out. His gaze flickered between Naruto's eyes full of agony and Hinata's eyes full of disbelief. His charade had been broken.

* * *

The current plan is for three more chapters until the end of the fanfic as the ending has been changed. As always, if you have any feedback, advice or questions, I'm happy to hear it :)


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